Italy under lockdown · 9:43am Mar 12th, 2020

Due to the growing number of people infected by SarsCoV2 aka COVID-19 aka coronavirus, my country is now under quarantene. In a TV speech this Monday, our prime minister told us to not leave our homes unless for really important reasons while last night a decree with more strict directives was signed. Non-essential shops are now closed, while police and military units are establishing check-points to limit circulation between cities.
TV and radio programs are inviting with insistence people to not leave their houses, while #iorestoacasa (#I-stay-at-home) has become common sight on our social media.

To my fellow Italian readers (if there are any) I wish you good luck. It's thought, but I'm sure we can get through it if we're careful and we do our civic duty following the instruction of the government. We've survived two world wars, the Nazi occupation, the Red Brigades terrorism, the Mafia, and the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, it won't be a virus to break us.

To every European, I say be prepared for the storm. We were the ones unlucky enough to come in contact with virus first, but hundreds of cases are already confirmed in our neighboring countries and it's only a matter of time before the number of infected people increases, so start taking appropriate precautions to prevent the spreading of the virus.

To every American, Canadian, and the rest of the world, I say to not underestimate this emergency by seeing it as a distant problem. The World Health Organization has recently classified this outbreak as a pandemic, meaning that every human being on this planet is potentially at risk of being infected.

To anyone reading this post, I wish you best of lucks, stay safe and wash your hands.