Deadly coronavirus outbreak forcing Italy to make ‘extreme’ decisions

An Australian woman living in Italy amid its coronavirus lockdown has shared the crazy rule supermarket’s are now imposing.

An Australian woman living in Italy has revealed the crazy rules locals are being forced to abide by after being put into lockdown after the coronavirus swept through the country.

Hermione and her Italian husband called through to KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show this morning to explain what the living situation is like – revealing there was only two people at a time allowed into supermarkets.

“We can still go to the supermarket but at this point there are lines and restrictions on what we can buy and how we’re allowed to enter,” she told the radio hosts.

“Our local supermarket only allows two people to enter at once, so since the lockdown was announced we haven’t been as we’ve had enough supplies to get us through to now but I’ll need to go soon. We’ll have to write a long list and get there to stock up because this is just the beginning.”

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An Australian woman living in Italy has revealed people needing groceries can only enter supermarkets two at a time. Seen, people queuing outside a supermarket in Rome. Picture: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP

Describing the situation as “hard to believe” and “really surreal” the caller explained she lived in a little region in the middle of the country, not in the initial red zone around Milan, which made the lockdown even more of a “shock”.

“Life since then really has been put on hold,” she said, explaining the queues to buy foo weren’t too bad, with the average wait being between 10-15 minutes in her area.

“We have to stay in the house unless there’s an urgent reason to leave, there are police patrolling the streets to make sure you’re not going from one suburb to another... it's extreme.”

This photo shows a woman keeping the ‘safe’ from the supermarket cashier in Rome. Picture: AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia

DOCTOR’S FACING HEARTBREAKING DECISIONS

Previously, an Italian doctor described the heartbreaking decisions health workers were making on a daily basis as the country faces one of the world’s deadliest coronavirus outbreaks.

In an interview that’s gone viral online, anaesthesiologist Christian Salaroli told the Corriere della Sera newspaper hospitals were now having to run warlike operations, where younger patients with a higher chance of survival were being prioritised.

“If a person between 80 and 95 has severe respiratory failure, you probably won’t proceed,” he said.

Emergency have been set up to ease procedures at one hospital in Brescia, Northern Italy. Picture: AP/Claudio Furlan/LaPresse

Elderly patients who showed signs of multiple organ failure could rarely be saved, he explained, and doctors have neither the time nor resources to “tempt miracles”.

“For now I sleep at night, because I know that the choice is based on the assumption that someone, almost always younger, is more likely to survive than the other,” he said.

“At least, it’s a consolation.”

But Dr Salaroli said others, especially younger doctors and nurses, were struggling to cope.

“Some come out crushed … I saw crying nurses with 30 years of experience behind them, people who have nervous breakdowns and suddenly tremble,” he said.

“I tell myself it’s like war surgery. We only try to save the skin of those who can do it.”

Doctors in Italy have described wartime conditions. Picture: Ap/Claudio Furlan/Lapresse

Other doctors have also described “surreal” scenes inside hospitals and makeshift emergency clinics, where beds are at a premium and specialties no longer matter.

“There are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopaedists – we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us,” Doctor Daniele Macchini, an intensive care specialist in Bergamo, wrote on Facebook.

“The staff is exhausted. I saw the tiredness on faces … doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses.

“Nurses with tears in their eyes because we can’t save everyone.”

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Medical staff are facing physical and emotional stress. Picture: AP/Claudio Furlan/LaPresse

ITALY IN LOCKDOWN

More than 10,000 people have now been infected with the coronavirus across Italy and 631 people have died, making it both the biggest and deadliest outbreak outside China.

The death rate is at six per cent – far higher than other countries – because of its large aged population, officials say.

On Tuesday, the entire country was placed in an extraordinary lockdown in a bid to contain the virus. Streets were deserted and shops were closed, while police patrolled around public areas making sure people stayed at least one metre apart.

Residents are unable to move around or leave the country unless they have a valid medical, family or work reason, though foreigners are still able to leave the country and have raced to airports to catch the last flights out.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is, however, said to be considering even tougher measures for the country’s hardest-hit Lombardy region, where people are pushing for non-essential businesses to close and public transport services to be cut back.

Empty streets in Milan, Italy. Picture: AP Photo/Luca Bruno

More than 10,000 people have now been infected with the coronavirus across Italy. Picture: AFP/Miguel Medina

MERKEL WARNS 70 PER CENT OF PEOPLE FACE INFECTION

There are almost 17,430 confirmed cases across Europe and 711 deaths.

In Germany, where there have been 1,622 cases, chancellor Angela Merkel warned up to 70 per cent of the population was likely to be infected.

“When the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 to 70 per cent of the population will be infected,” she said at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

“The process has to be focused on not overburdening the health system by slowing the virus’s spread … It’s about winning time.”

Angela Merkel says 70 per cent of the population could be infected with the virus. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom reported a huge jump in cases – from 363 to 456 – a day after its health minister announced she’d tested positive for the disease.

The Queen also ditched her usual practice of shaking hands with visitors to Buckingham Palace choosing instead to greet people from a distance.

Overseas, Iran announced 63 new deaths taking its total to 354, while China is now so worried about the coronavirus re-entering from abroad that Beijing has announced all overseas visitors will be quarantined for 14 days.

Originally published as Deadly coronavirus outbreak forcing Italy to make ‘extreme’ decisions