Biagio Manzotti was the Santa Barbara Independent’s calendar assistant from 2017 to 2018. He’s now back in his home country of Italy, specifically the city of Milan, the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak. We spoke by Skype about what it means to live in a highly restrictive Red Zone and how what’s happening in Italy may foreshadow near-future life in the United States.
One of Italy’s first confirmed coronavirus patients was a 38-year-old business manager living in the southern part of Milan, Manzotti explained. “He went to the hospital, and that’s when the spread really happened.” Now, Italy’s health-care system is critically overburdened with 27,980 cases and 2,158 deaths. Doctors are rationing beds and ventilators, obituaries fill local newspapers, and survivors mourn alone because of a ban on group gatherings. “They’re just letting people die because there’s no room in the hospitals,” Manzotti said. “All of this started happening less than a month ago.”
The Milanese are now living under what is essentially house arrest, he went on, in what authorities are calling a Red Zone. No one is allowed to venture outside their home without a permit. All stores are closed, except for supermarkets, banks, pharmacies, and tobacco shops. Schools, theaters, gyms, and restaurants shut down weeks ago. “It’s really eerie,” Manzotti said. As a marketing manager, Manzotti received permission to work in his company’s downtown office, but his bosses ordered that only a single employee occupy each floor.