Precis

It's Europe's coronavirus epicentre with cases of infected rising by over a thousand daily. In the country's north, hospitals are full. Patients, young and old, are dying.

To control the outbreak, Italy is in lockdown but is it too little too late?

In the province of Lodi, half an hour from northern Italy's capital Milan, it's day 23 of the lockdown.

A young couple - Isabella and Roberto - are stuck at home with their 3-year-old daughter Eleonora. They're wondering when they will be able to resume normal life.

The northern Lombardy region has been dubbed the ground zero of Italy's corona crisis. So far, over two thousand people have died there and nearly thirty thousand have been infected.

After Lombardy, the virus spread through the north, then nationwide.

At first, doctors mistook it for the flu. Precious time was lost and now Italy, known for its warm embraces and kisses on both cheeks, has more cases than any country apart from China.

Hospitals have been swamped. All non-corona related patients' care has been sidelined. Doctors have been issued with protocols about which patients to prioritise and which not to - a form of disaster medicine.

Desperate to bring the virus under control, Italy has finally taken strong action, declaring a nationwide lockdown. Schools and universities have shut. Shops, cafes and restaurants have closed. Apart from buying groceries, people need official authorisation to move around or else face a fine.

Reporter Emma Alberici can't travel to Italy but she has relatives and friends in and around Milan.

For this special report, Emma taps into her network of family and friends as well as doctors and businesspeople, to tell an intimate story about how families, communities and the country are dealing with this unprecedented health emergency.

We use skype calls, phone diaries and photos to bring you a picture of Italy in lockdown.

In Milan, we meet the head surgeon at one of the city's major hospitals. He's isolated at home after contracting the coronavirus from one of his patients. He explains how he's being treated for the infection and his fears for his wife, who's working as an obstetrician.

There's 7-year-old Zoe, who's doing schoolwork from her home in Milan. She skypes her Australian friend Livia and they chat and giggle about the virus and hand washing.

We meet Emma's 90-year-old aunt recently hospitalised with influenza, and her cousin - also Emma Alberici - who's looking after her mother while holding down a job as CFO of a big pharmaceutical company in Milan - an industry which has special exemption from the lockdown.

We hear from Isabella and Roberto about the meals they're cooking and the bread they're baking.

And we interview virologist Prof Roberto Burioni who warns Australia that this virus is dangerous and must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

This is an intimate insight into an extraordinary moment in history.

Near empty Milan railway station

Music

00:00

Super:
Milan, Italy

00:07

Title: Life in the Time of Corona

00:16

Train interior. Passengers wearing masks/Railway station escalator

00:23

Milan GVs

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: It’s ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak. Italy’s iconic cities closed, the country on a war footing.

00:34

Hospital interiors

Tens of thousands infected; the death toll still rising. One of the world’s best health systems at breaking point. Inside a country in lockdown.

00:57

People wearing masks/Near empty streets

Music

01:15

Cousin Emma video call

EMMA ALBERICI, Cousin: Hello, my name is Emma Alberici, I live in Milan. I am Emma Alberici’s cousin, at the ABC. I work for a pharmaceutical company as the Chief Financial Officer.

01:40

Ariel cooking /Cousin Emma and Maria watch TV

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter:  Necessity is the mother of invention, so, given even foreign correspondents are working from home, I’ve asked family and friends to share their experiences of life in lockdown.

01:55

Ariel cooking

Cousin Emma: This is Alberici oil. Marco Alberici oil.

02:17

Cousin Emma, Maria and Ariel eat

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: My cousin, her partner Ariel, and my 90 year old Auntie Maria are at home in Milan, the heart of Italy's design capital.

Cousin Emma: "Mum, how's your day been?"

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Emma's mother Maria normally lives on her own, two and a half hours away, on the Ligurian coast.

02:27

Cousin Emma video call with Reporter Emma

EMMA ALBERICI, Cousin:  She is pretty well, but I am very concerned about anything that might compromise her immune system, because she is very, very frail.

02:50

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter:  They’re saying this virus mainly attacks the elderly, especially if they’re already suffering from some other illness or co-morbidity.

03:05

EMMA ALBERICI, Cousin:  Just before the outbreak, Mum was admitted into hospital for a terrible influenza.

03:17

She was there for about a week in February. Even then, staff had suggested taking her out of there, because hospitals can be breeding grounds for viruses, and so take care of her ourselves.

03:26

Empty streets GVs

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: The bans that started in northern Italy at the end of February have become more restrictive by the day. It started with schools; now everything that isn’t an essential service is closed, even the parks. 

03:42

Cousin Emma leaves for work

04:10

My cousin Emma Alberici is still going off to work each day. Essential staff at manufacturing firms have been given special rights to keep the wheels of production and export moving. Northern Italy is responsible for forty percent of the entire country’s GDP.

04:20

Cousin Emma at work

EMMA ALBERICI, Cousin:  We have a self-declaration document that we must take with us in case we're stopped.

04:42

Cousin Emma video call with Reporter Emma

People are allowed to go out for essential work,

04:50

Police direct people shopping for groceries

for health reasons, like going to the doctor and to get groceries.

04:55

Cousin Emma video call with Reporter Emma

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: What happens if you go out for no particular reason?

05:07

EMMA ALBERICI, Cousin:  My brother Moreno, because he was washing his car, was taken to the police station for two hours, telling him it was not a necessary reason to be outside.

05:14

People queue for groceries

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: He was fined the equivalent of $1100. Despite thousands of arrests for breaking the rules, most Italians are finally doing as they’re told, queueing for hours outside supermarkets, keeping their distance.

05:24

Ariel shopping

Emma’s partner Ariel shops locally, where things are easier.

05:50

"When you get to the supermarket, are there products missing or in short supply? Because here people have gone crazy over toilet paper."

06:04

Ariel with Maria and Emma on video call

ARIEL:  I think it must be an Anglo-Saxon thing because the same has happened in the US. In Italy we haven't had any shortages, and the last thing that will ever be missing is food. You're Italian, you know that for Italians the first thing is food. You can go without medication but not without food.

06:15

Catriona's house

0639

Catriona plays with son and dog

CATRIONA:  So my name's Catriona Wallace and we live in Sesto Calende, which is about 50 kilometres North of Milan. I'm Australian, but I've been living in Italy

06:52

Catriona video call

for 17 years. We have two boys aged 10 and 13 years old.

07:01

Catriona plays with dog. Son rides bike

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Catriona Wallace and her husband live on Lake Maggiore.  Her husband runs a manufacturing business, so he too has a leave pass to go to work.

07:06

Catriona video call

CATRIONA:  It is quite simply unprecedented; I've never seen anything like it. I have to say, today was the first day that I became scared, because this morning we woke up to find out that a very close friend of ours who lives 200 metres from our house, he's the ex-mayor of this region, and he has been hospitalised with very serious respiratory symptoms. He woke up on Monday with the symptoms, and by Tuesday he was in hospital.

04:27

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Is he okay?

CATRIONA:  He's very sick at the moment. He's only 50 years old, and so he's not in the age range, and he doesn't have any previous conditions, but he's very sick. He's in intensive care and he's been hospitalised.

07:53

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Are you at all concerned that the Italian Government waited too long to impose these restrictions on the populace?

08:13

CATRIONA:  Rather than having it escalated each day and finding out incrementally about new measures, I would like the restrictions to have come in right from the beginning. Italians were still going skiing. They were still – you know, it's winter over here, it's the ski season. They were still having birthday parties. They were still gathering together. And when the most draconian measures were announced last Saturday night, that you cannot leave your house unless it's for emergency medical or work reasons, it was only then that Italians started to take it seriously.

08:19

Cailin riding bike

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: For three weeks they haven’t seen anyone outside their immediate family.

08:57

Video call, Catriona and Cailin

CAILIN:  It gets, I don't know... You feel kind of like there's nowhere to go, like you're stuck inside the house and it feels, I don't know how to say... What is it? Sickness, no. I think cabin fever.

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Cabin fever. Yes, exactly. And Cailin, what do you think about the coronavirus? Are you worried about it?

CAILIN:  I mean a little, but it's not like -- kids are less in danger, like other people say.

09:04

Cailin riding bike

Music

09:37

Italian TV footage. Interview with Burioni

TV INTERVIEWER:  "Children seem immune from this virus, but it's not true, is it?"

09:45

ROBERTO BURIONI, Virologist: "Of course children can catch the virus. That's why we’re closing schools. Kids can transmit to each other and then bring it home and pass it on to their grandparents."

09:50

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Virologist Roberto Burioni has become a household name in Italy. He’s the one who advised the government to shut the whole country down.

09:58

Video call with Dr. Burioni

"The fact that every day the number of cases is rising so exponentially, does that indicate that the lockdown happened too slowly?"

10:10

ROBERTO BURIONI, Virologist:  We will see the effect of the lockdown in a couple of weeks, and I hope that in that moment that the numbers will not rise any more. If not, we will need a more strict lockdown. This is really something that should be teaching other countries, that if you don't move very quickly and very strongly, you just get overwhelmed.

10:22

Empty Milan streets

Music

10:39

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: As far back as early January, the professor was warning of the dangers coming from China, which has strong links with Milan's fashion and furniture industries. Three flights a week were landing in Italy from the virus epicentre of Wuhan. Doctor Burioni gave an interview

10:43

GFX. Linkiesta article

to investigative newspaper Linkiesta on the 21^st of January. The headline shouted 'This Chinese virus is dangerous… Roberto Burioni says Italians are at risk too'. Nine weeks ago he told them: 'European authorities have said that the risk of the virus spreading to Europe, especially Italy, is small. I don’t agree at all, though I sincerely hope I'm wrong'.

11:05

Video call with Dr. Burioni

"People are saying in Australia people die of influenza all the time and that we shouldn't be exaggerating the risks. What do you say to them?"

11:37

ROBERTO BURIONI, Virologist:  It's like comparing a bomb to, let's say, a match, because this virus is very dangerous. It's causing a lot of deaths and mortality is very high. That's why I think that it would be a very bad mistake to underestimate the gravity and the danger coming from the virus.

11:45

GFX. Map showing COVID-19 cases in Italy

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Italy confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus on January 30^th – Chinese visitors from Wuhan who’d arrived in Milan but fell ill in Rome. Three weeks later, two people died and lock downs began.  Within a week, there’d been a tenfold increase – more than 1,000 confirmed cases.  The number of people infected has now exploded to more than 60,000.

12:06

Video call with Dr. Burioni

"Are you seeing deaths among young people in the same sort of numbers, or is it very much concentrated to older people?"

12:43

ROBERTO BURIONI, Virologist:  Every viral disease takes a greater toll on the elderly. I had a call yesterday night of a basketball player, 28 years old. He's in intensive care in a very critical situation. So just don't imagine this is only a virus for the old people, which is a danger for the old people. Yesterday, a doctor, he was 48 and in perfect health, he died. So really, don't imagine this only a problem for the elderly people.

12:54

Patients in hospital

Music

13:27

Guglielmo Gianotti in quarantine at home. Shows room

13:36

Guglielmo: "Here are the rooms, I'm in this bedroom, see?"

Emma: "Yes."

Guglielmo: "I’ve got my own room with my own bathroom, so I’m entirely independent from my wife."

13:43

Video call with Dr Gianotti

GUGLIELMO GIANOTTI, Surgeon: My name is Guglielmo Gianotti. I am a surgeon. I am the Executive Director of surgery at the Cremona Hospital, which is the hospital that has probably been hardest hit by this coronavirus outbreak.

14:08

Guglielmo Gianotti in quarantine at home. In bathroom

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Dr. Gianotti has the coronavirus. He’s at home in quarantine with his wife Enza, who works at another local hospital as a gynaecologist.

14:32

Photos. Dr. Gianotti with medical team

Dr. Gianotti took these photos with his team just before he was tested. It was in the days before the hospital was swamped with thousands of patients, who in turn, infected many of the doctors and nurses. Already, 19 Italian doctors have died from the virus.

14:45

Video call with Dr Gianotti and wife, wearing masks

Guglielmo: "I’m wearing my mask now because my wife is with me, come say hi Enza."

Enza: "Buongiorno!"

Emma: "Good morning."

15:06

Guglielmo: We’re at home but we can’t be too close to each other because it’s already been six days since I caught the virus, so it’ll be at least another week before I'm cleared.

15:17

Hospital interiors

Music

15:38

Guglielmo: The situation at my hospital is quite chaotic because it’s changing from hour to hour.

15:40

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: The first person to die of COVID-19 in Italy died in Dr. Gianotti’s hospital.

15:50

Video call with Dr Gianotti

GUGLIELMO GIANOTTI, Surgeon: Two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, we found ourselves having to transfer all the patients who weren’t COVID-related to other hospitals, and my ward, like other wards, was transformed into a COVID ward. We didn’t have enough protective equipment. We surgeons were suddenly managing patients, who weren't our regular patients, because the infectious diseases doctors, the respiratory experts and physicians were all removed from the hospital because they were infected.

16:03

Driving to Lodi

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Our local crew has been given permission to drive to the nearby province of Lodi. They’re going to visit a young couple who’ve been stuck at home with their three year old for 23 days. Lodi was the first place in the country to shut down, and now it’s also the first place to reap the rewards of acting quickly . There are still new cases of COVID-19 patients every day, but the rate of infection is slowing.

16:51

Isabella mashing potatoes with Eleonora

Isabella: "What do we need to mash?"

Eleonora: "The potatoes. Let’s squash them."

17:32

Isabella and Roberto video call

ISABELLA GORNI: My name is Isabella Gorni. I was born in Lodi but I live at Terranova dei Passerini. I work in customer service for a company that makes natural cosmetic products.

17:42

ROBERTO ZOPPI:  I am Roberto Zoppi from Cremona, I too live at Terranova dei Passerini with Isabella, and I work in IT, I am the coordinator of the department of business intelligence.

17:52

Roberto with guitar on verandah

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Both Isabella and Roberto are working from home.  Legislation was hurried through the Italian parliament demanding every firm offer their workers the right to do so.

18:06

ISABELLA GORNI: We both work for two big Italian companies who were very supportive from the beginning, letting to work from home.

18:23

Isabella and Roberto video call

So we can truly say we have never really been bored. The hardest challenge has been to manage our three-year old Eleonora, whilst working from home, without being able to give her the educational support she needs. We cook - you know that in Italy we all cook.

ROBERTO ZOPPI: We're getting fat.

ISABELLA GORNI: We're getting fat. We have some gym equipment at home, but as I said, having Eleonora at home, well… let’s just say we can’t get bored.

18:31

Eleanora shows wombat

Eleanora wants to show you her wombat, otherwise she won’t be happy.

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Sure, what’s the wombat’s name?

ISABELLA GORNI: I think its name is Wombat.

19:15

Roberto plays guitar, Eleanora plays

19:24

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: While the situation seems to be improving in Lodi, just north of here in Bergamo, things have spiralled out of control. The cost of keeping the factories open around there may have been too high.

19:32

Isabella and Roberto video call

"Do you have any fears for the future?"

ROBERTO ZOPPI:  Yes, let’s just say that the stress of having been locked up for 23 days can get you thinking about a lot of things. Our main fear is for our little girl. Sooner or later schools will reopen, she will come in contact with others, so how are we all going to handle that?

19:50

Roberto and Isabella wave goodbye

20:22

Medical staff in tent wards

20:24

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Across Italy, makeshift tent wards are being built to cope with the overwhelming number of people presenting at emergency. Doctors now want everyone to assume they have the virus and only go to hospital if they have serious trouble breathing. The priority is to keep health workers safe and at work. Dr. Gianotti is one of more than 4,000 health care workers who’ve caught the virus.

20:27

Video call with Dr Gianotti

GUGLIELMO GIANOTTI, Surgeon: It’s very difficult to help you understand with so far away, the extent of this health emergency. My speciality is in emergency surgery so I have always been taught that in times of war we must decide which patients will live and which ones will probably die. That essentially describes the situation we're currently living through in Italy. And I have to tell you that for us it's a massive responsibility to decide to give a ventilator to one patient and not to another.

21:02

Sydney beach. Children playing in playground

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter:  Back in Sydney, Dr. Gianotti’s niece is still able to spend time outside with her friends, but who knows for how long? Livia Gianotti only moved to Australia from Italy six months ago.

21:53

Photos. Livia and Zoe

Livia’s best friend is Zoe Balsotti. They were inseparable growing up in Milan. They went to school together, too. Like everyone else in Italy, the only way she can see her friends at the moment is on a screen.

22:15

Livia and Zoe video call

Livia: Are you a little over it because you can’t see your friends? 

22:30

Zoe:  The other difficult thing is that I can’t organise myself to do schoolwork, it’s much easier to do it at school. 

22:37

Livia: Because there isn't the teacher? Because if you don't have the teacher there?

Zoe: Exactly. Because I say, okay yes, I’ll do it, promise, I’ll do it, but then I don’t do it.

22:44

Zoe and parents having meal, on video call with friends

Zoe's Father:  Since we cannot have drinks with friends outside, we have organised to do it at home and we are connected with Zoom with our friends.

Zoe's Mother: We are having warm brioches.

23:03

Livia and Zoe video call

Livia: What are the good and the bad things about staying at home. Tell me, tell me.

23:27

Zoe: I am here with my family and I can sleep more and I can play, and my meals aren’t rushed. For instance, this morning for breakfast we made pancakes.

23:33

Livia: How yummy, what do you put on them?  Strawberries? 

23:51

Zoe: On my pancakes I put maple syrup and Nutella.

23:56

Cousin Emma with Maria eating breakfast

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: Working on this story over the past week has made me more and more worried about the people I love. Who knows when I'll see them again.

24:11

Cousin Emma and Maria on video call

"What about your health, auntie? Are you feeling well?"

24:21

MARIA:  Yes, I'm quite well now, I’m a bit slow with words.

EMMA: I'm going to show you how we spend our time.

24:25

Cousin Emma shows video on phone of Maria dancing

24:45

EMMA ALBERICI, Reporter: All we can do while we wait for a vaccine is stay apart physically while also looking after each other in spirit.

24:54

Music

25:01

Credits over (see below)

25:07

Out point after credits

25:34