Italy in Meltdown, Sends Military to Enforce Covid-19 Lockdown
Just as Italians were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, officials reported another spike in coronavirus infections.
Authorities on Saturday confirmed 6,557 new cases with 793 deaths in 24 hours.
Overall, Italy has reported 53,578 cases, 4,825 deaths, and 5,129 recoveries. There are roughly 2,655 patients in intensive care.
“Many of the elderly are dying in their houses or in old people’s homes, without anyone testing them either before or after they die,” says Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori, adding that the true death toll is probably four times higher than what has been reported.
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Italy implemented a nationwide quarantine on March 9th in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Last week, as Italy’s totals eclipsed those in China, authorities banned residents from outdoor exercises including running and biking.
The Italian military has been dispatched to Milan to enforce the quarantine measures. Nearly 10,000 people left their homes in violation of the lockdown on Friday.
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As reported Sunday, the United States has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases with an estimated 27,200. The state of New York last week reported 7,500 cases, making it the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.
“I hate to say this, but it’s true: We are now the epicenter of this crisis,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order directing all non-essential businesses in the state to close.
This week, NYU forced its students to move out of their dorms in case the state needs to use the beds for COVID-19 patients. There will also be a hospital ship stationed in New York Harbor to increase hospital capacity amid the crisis.
Author’s Note: The situation in the United States would be much worse had President Trump not acted so quickly to ban travel from China.
I fear this is a long way from over. People cannot stay in their safe place forever. You must get out to buy food and take care of the necessities. Then we have people traveling from one state to another, one town to another, and either carrying this stuff or catching it and taking it home. NO one knows for sure where this virus is or lives. The medical people “think” it is passed between humans but they don’t know. It may be floating around in your front yard on the breezes blowing. And if we should get really lucky and come up with a vaccine it would take months to get everyone treated and the virus brought under control. I don’t mean to be so negative but I believe we all must prepare for the long haul where ever it takes us.
No matter how you look at this, WE all need to do the Chinese Hunker down and stay put. I know you said we need to get out and buy groceries but they can be ordered on line or on the phone and delivered to you. Think about all the gasoline you are saving by not running around like we usually do. Now people that live on ranches or large farming communities, they can work their fields because they usually do it along anyway, Dairy Farms and such may have sons that help work the herd, some communities are isolated and just taking precautions like a face mask and using an anti-bacterial on both hands and face will help eliminate this until a cure or vaccine can be developed. For us that are in metropolitan areas, well we just need to hunker down and stay put to stay safe no matter what. Were not talking about years, we are talking of weeks to months until something happens. Do some yard work, some deep cleaning, evaluate what you really need and can get rid of, Plant a garden even if its a window garden, work on the car, clean and polish it, watch movies on TV, read a book, do what you like and stop thinking of it as an isolation move. its a move to save your family and you from getting this stinking virus that is still out there killing the weak and reeking havoc on economies, the stock markets, the distribution chain, and our personal freedoms. If our parents or grand parents could do it in WWII for the good of the country, are we no better than they are, we can do it too. Just stay away from other people and don’t shake hands or make contact. Maintain a self aware space of at least 8 to 10 feet between you and anyone else.
The problem is that we have a bunch of people out there that will not follow the rules and go to the beaches, spend time on Spring Break, continue to travel, and don’t take the precautions and they are the dangerous ones. They carry the virus and spread it around. Every time they infect a new person the cycle starts all over again. The only way to stop this is arrest those who refuse to cooperate and change them with disorderly conduct to attempted murder if they know they have the virus. Where do you put them all, put up tents in sports stadiums and place chain link fences around them with guards and dogs. Something must be done to end this and protect us at the same time.
Hey doofus, not everyone has the money to hoard whether at the store or online, how ironic that 50% of this tragedy is because of the sinful greed of the wealthy, some are saying this tragedy will make our wealthy rethink the way they conduct business, no it won’t, it is production at the lowest cost to reap the highest gains (i.e.) sinful greed.
Expecting everyone can survive the way you suggest is simply arrogance, I think many of these businesses that have shutdown due to the knowledge of all that taxpayer funded charity is a tragedy in itself, at the local Target they had both a Pizza Hut and Starbucks cafe which both are now shutdown due to Covid-19 Pandemic, shamefully stupid and disgusting.
Yet those fluff wealthy spoiled brats have no intentions of cancelling “Party On Down Time” (i.e.) Spring Break, nor have I heard anything about Mardi Gras being cancelled.
Remember the rules. Remember “Personal Responsibility.” They can party all they want. When they get sick, and they will, refuse them entrance to the Inn.
There is treatment available. And it works 100%.
Who is to say” NonEsential Businesses?” Freddie?
I hope that Facist pig Francis catches it and croaks along with his most devout supporters of the Catholic church.
It sounds to me like you have serious anger management issues. I am a devout Catholic and proud of it.!!!
Being a devout Catholic doesn’t mean you have to admire the present Pope.
The members of the Communist party and their mouthpiece bobble head disseminators of deceit commentators would disagree with the Punching Bag Post author of this article, according to them POTUS Trump has done a very job in regards to handling this tragic event while singing the praises of the tyrannical Chinese politicians and how they have been tending to the effects of the disease.
The sick comment about Pope Frances is not only sick and deplorable it shows the hatred of the Catholic Church and all Christians. This is the time to pray for all People during this time is crisis.
A decent article until the last line. No wonder Trump always comes out looking like a hero no matter how badly he fails. His flock is always moving the goal posts for him, like helicopter parents always move the goal posts so their spoiled Milennial brat can never fail.
The guy shut down the CDC post in China that was created decades ago specifically to be an early warning system in just this sort of situation. It worked during SARS and MERS. Trump axed science in favor of money and religious ideology, told us his “good buddy”
Xi had everything under control, then told us”America will be safe”, then told us “America has the best response capacity in the world”, and now, as fatalities mount while people in my neighborhood and at at least one school of medicine that I know of are sewing face masks because our medical personnel lack basic protective equipment, Trump brags that we should be grateful that he prevented an even WORSE tragedy – and you PRAISE him for his vanity and ineptitude!!!! His supporters should be held partially responsible for the human and economic carnage that he and they jointly enabled enabled through rejection of science, sound public policy, and failure to plan ahead.