Outbreak of Corona Virus (Covid – 19) in Lucca
Fighting the pandemic
March 2020
The year 2020 will forever be remembered for the disastrous outbreak of the virus known as Corona Virus or Covid – 19 that appeared to have begun in the city of Wohun, the capital of the Hubei Province of the Peoples’ Republic of China with a population of over nine million. According to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology”
‘On January 9, 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a new coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2), had been identified as the causative agent of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), and the genomic sequence was made public’.
The virus spread rapidly through countries of south-east Asia and Italy became the first European country to be affected by the virus soon after. The outbreak caused an unexpected pandemic, the most serious event for the health and economy of Italy since WWII.
Left: Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit Right: General spread of the virus
Initially, tragic effects caused the death of many elderly people in the northern area of Italy, particularly Lombardy around its capital Milan. The speed of the outbreak of this unknown strain of Corona virus caused the health system to partially collapse and meant many health workers in hospitals were among the early fatalities.
As can be seen from the map of Italy (above) showing the general spread of the virus, Tuscany and central Italy had been affected less than the northern provinces whilst southern provinces, Sardinia and Sicily were affected even less.
Like the whole of Italy, Lucca was in total ‘lock-down’ that meant you could leave home for essential food, medicine, and limited exercise only. These exceptional measures were enforced by police and created an eerie feeling within a deserted city centre for most of March and April.
A deserted Piazza Napoleone
For myself, the lockdown and social restrictions meant that my planned move from Via di Poggio 34 to my new apartment in Via Della Dogana could not happen, although I was fortunate to obtain the keys on April 1st. My attempts to move smaller items such as clothes, books etc in shopping bags, two at a time, proved a welcome distraction from what many people felt as a somewhat ‘boring’ and inactive period. It wasn’t until mid-June that local removal firm Fazzini were able to complete the move and it was late September that Jan was able to enjoy our new location in Lucca.