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“Non c’e’ piu’ tempo” — “We have run out of time.” With those words, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Monday the most radical move by any country since the coronavirus outbreak.
Starting Tuesday, the whole of Italy — a country of more than 60 million people — is in lockdown.
No one is allowed to leave the city where they reside without special permission; bars and restaurants will close at 6 p.m.; no sporting events or large gatherings will take place until at least April 3.
It is an extraordinary turn of events that took less than 19 days to materialize. From the discovery of “patient No. 1” — named only as Mattia, a 38-year-old manager at Unilever — on Feb. 21, to Monday night’s dramatic decision, Italy has seen its number of confirmed coronavirus cases grow to 7,985 while the death toll now stands at 463.
Will Italy’s drastic actions be a template for other countries hit by COVID-19? Or is Italy a victim of its authorities’ mistakes and the decisions by many of its citizens to flout the rules?
It is a question that U.S. and other European countries where cases are starting to mount, such as France, Germany and Spain, ought to be asking. Here is a look at what happened in Italy and whether it could be repeated elsewhere.
1. Lack of rapid quarantine procedures at the beginning of the outbreak
This is definitely on Conte’s administration and the local authorities. It is unclear how Mattia contracted the virus, but the government only introduced quarantine measures for those coming from affected areas after the discovery of his case. The country may never find who “patient zero” actually was, but it was likely to have been someone who had recently returned from China and wasn’t caught.
2. Isolation of small areas or cities
The first lockdown — on the day Mattia’s case was confirmed — only focused on a handful of “comuni” — small cities and surrounding areas — in the north of the country. The measures were taken to avoid spreading panic and unduly hitting economic activity in one of the most productive areas of the country. An understandable move, but one that was to prove inadequate.
3. Escalation of measures leads to panic
By Feb. 23, realizing that the virus was spreading, the Italian authorities ramped up their measures, closing schools, bars, nightclubs and other public places in six regions in the north of the country. The world-famous Venice Carnival was scrapped, as were several top-flight soccer matches. The result? Worried people besieged supermarkets, grabbing anything they could find, from hand-sanitizers to pasta. Neighboring countries, led by Austria, began asking questions and enforcing stricter vetting at the border.
4. Self-isolation and telecommuting take hold
On Monday, as the working week began, people and corporations started to make their own choices. Milan, the biggest city in northern Italy, led the way. As more and more companies asked or allowed people to work from home, the Milan metro — usually packed with commuters — was deserted. Some factories were also forced to close because workers from the affected areas were unable to reach them.
5. Breaking the rules
Despite the rapid rise in the number of cases, some Italians thought they knew best. Reports of people flouting the rules, trying to leave the cordoned-off zones, or simply ignoring the public health advice of the authorities, abounded in the first few days of the outbreak. It is not a coincidence that in his statement on Monday night, Conte promised strong sanctions against violators of the new rules.
