One Year Later...

 One year ago, we started a nationwide lockdown here in Italy. That first week of March brought a lot of apprehension of the unknown and we still have a lot of apprehension around the world as to the future course of this pandemic.

There have been ups and downs as we have gone from complete lockdowns to free movement across Europe with limited restrictions. The term “lockdown” has a slightly different meaning here than what we see and hear from the US – in the strictest sense we could not leave out house except to obtain groceries within 1 kilometer. Factories, schools, offices and non-essential medical services were halted. No restaurants or bars were open, no take-out. All sports activities were halted and if you left your town you had to produce an authorization form and identification if stopped by the authorities.

On this one-year anniversary Italy and Europe is experiencing a new surge of cases and variants. Basilicata has been a zona rossa for a week and additional regions will do the same next week. The restrictions are not as severe as last year but still just basic services are open.

There have been many Italian words we have become all too familiar with since this pandemia started. Congiunti – the person you live with, this became important for couples that lived together but were not married. Focolaio – an outbreak, used frequently when a school or town has a spike in new cases. Guariti – those recovered from the virus, Casi positivi – new cases, tamponi – testing swabs, Terapia intensiva and the most unfortunate -  Deceduti – the deceased.

"Andra tutto bene" (everything will be alright) was the mantra when the pandemic started but faded once people realized this was not going away quickly. Hopefully the authorities will not make the same missteps as last summer and we can have a better end to 2021.