Trinis on covid19 responses around the world: Paranoia but no panic

Out of a global population of 7.7 billion people, totally there were 118,548 people affected with coronavirus (covid19) with 4,267 deaths and 65,105 recovered.

Currently, there are 49,176 infected patients with 43,131 in mild condition and 6,045 in critical condition. This information comes from Worldometer, an independent website that provides live updates on covid19. China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain, Germany and the US were the top eight countries to have the virus.

Italian shutdown

As of March 10, Italy put its 60.48 million population on full lockdown because of the virus. All but essential travel has been banned across the country. All public gatherings were closed including cultural institutions and sporting events. Schools, childcare facilities and universities were closed. Restaurants and bars were open but with restricted to opening hours between 6 am to 6 pm. The Italian people were told they must keep a safe distance from each other – at least a metre apart.

Italy had a total of 10,149 cases with 631 deaths. Newsday reached out to TT citizens in Italy on Tuesday to find out what the atmosphere of the country was like since covid19 started to affect the country.

Tish Smith, a communications specialist in Tuscany, formally from St James, said Tuscany has 206 cases of the virus with one death. Her borough has six cases.

She said there is no panic buying in the grocery as people are only supposed to stay within a metre of each other. There are police officers in the grocery to ensure there are not many people in the store and people keep their distance.

"Where we are, there were only two people waiting to get into the supermarket. It's very respectable. Nobody is acting crazy."

Smith, however, said Italians are social people and find it difficult not to keep in touch with their community.

"Italy being Italy, socialising is what we do here. Neighbours are hanging over the fences. Occasionally the neighbours are hanging over the balcony shouting across to each other having a chit chat with the other neighbour because it's a very close-knit community... (But the) minute everyone goes downstairs, they are keeping their distance."

Italy has one of the largest elderly population in Europe. Statistics from the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population showed in 2017, 29.4 per cent of the population of Italy was over 60-years-old. The average age of those who died was 81, they were mostly men and more than two thirds of cases had three or more pre-existing conditions.

Smith suspects that's probably why Italy has so many deaths.

"It's all the olive oil, they really live to a ripe old age here."

She said people were staying indoors and everywhere was quiet.

"All the play gourds are literally completely empty. As much as we want to stay in, you have to go out and take a walk around the block. The playground is dead."

She said everyone in Italy had hand sanitiser in their bags and wet wipes. They are leaving the shoes at the front door and in her household they must sing happy birthday twice.

"We are taking the hand-washing situation seriously. We don't want to go in the hospital."

She said work is difficult. Those who can, are doing smart work– working from home using digital media – but not all can do such work. She said the government is doing their best to brace from an economic fallout.

"It seems as if lots of things are in the pipeline to prevent a deep cut in earnings."

UK (mostly) keeps calm and carries on

The UK has 373 recorded cases of covid19 out of its 66.44 million population. Depending on which part of the UK people are in, there seems to be those who are calm and those who are bothered by covid19.

Saskia Johnson a 21-year-old student from Leicester said while she's having difficulty buying pasta and toilet paper from the store, most people seem calm.

"I can only speak for people my age, but for the most part, we're being pretty calm. Most people my age don't see it as much of a risk. But they are panic buying. I went to a huge supermarket there was no pasta or toilet paper. There were tonnes of people buying canned foods and things we could keep for a while, but it's mostly paranoia."

She said there were two confirmed cases in Leicestershire. Her university has not cancelled any classes, but there were a group of students who went into self-isolation because they returned from a trip to Italy.

Kaf Perez, a member of the UK Armed Forces, who lives in Newcastle but works in Portsmouth and London said stores by him have resorted to rationing dry and canned goods along with toiletry products. Aside for that, most of the population is still going about business as usual.

"Classic British stuff, upper-lipness," Perez said.

Amaal Ali who lives in Newcastle City said while there was some panic buying, the shops were stocked with goods such as milk and toilet paper.

"There was some panic buying, but that seems to have settled and it was mostly hand sanitizers and hand soap that they’ve put preventative rationing on those items."

Travelling Europe in spite of covid19

Queen's Young Leader Jean-Claude Cournand has been travelling Europe since he graduated from his masters degree late last year. He has been to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and is currently in Latvia.

He said people are for the most part nice, but sceptical of travellers.

"I am cool so far, but as I travel it's becoming more and more of a big deal. I was being polite and asked a guy in the hostel I visited, 'Where you from?' The first thing he said was: 'Don't worry, I don't have coronavirus.' He was an Asian guy from South Korea working in Sweden."

Another person offered to host Cournand and a day before he arrived, he was asked to share his travel history and asked if he had any symptoms of the virus.

Paranoia and sinophobia seemed to follow him with the different people he encountered. In Helsinki he was talking with a guy from India who was on a tour. During the conversation a bus pulled up and Asian people came out to take pictures where they stood. His friend demanded they leave.

"So far, most of the people I've met have been foreigners who were anxious about other foreigners. I have been very very careful never to sneeze or cough in public. I feel fearful about doing that. Like it would trigger the people around me."

Covid19 in the Caribbean

Jamaica recorded it's first case of covid19 on Tuesday. LGBT+ activist Jalna Broderick said she is unperturbed and does not understand why people are panicking.

"I know it can kill, and yes, I am asthmatic and would be hit hard if I got it, but I’m still not panicking. I was speaking to a person who works at Pricesmart – one of our large wholesalers – and she said a man came in and bought 50 palettes of hand sanitizers, each palette had about 300 units each. She also said, it was like there was a hurricane on the way how persons were buying this weekend."