Isolated Italian village is turned into ‘human lab’
AN ENTIRE Italian village has been sealed off and turned into a ‘human laboratory’ after the disease threatened to decimate its elderly population.
No one in medieval Nerola is allowed to leave their home, even for food or medicine as all 1, 00 residents are tested.
Authorities have blocked roads leading to the hilltop site and even tried to remove road signs showing where it is – until mayor Sabina Granieri accused them of going a step too far.
‘Nobody can erase us,’ she said. ‘We are here, we exist, we are alive and we want to stay alive. Our sacrifice will be used for the whole scientific community.’
The village in the Lazio region near Rome was designated a ‘red zone’ after two care home residents died and 77 people were infected – threatening disaster for the village’s elderly population.
No one except officials can enter or leave and the army is going door-todoor with supplies.
Officials are trying to understand how the virus spreads through a community through universal testing, deploying potential treatments and intensively monitoring every resident. They hope it will provide lessons in how to tackle the pandemic in a country which has suffered a quarter of the world’s fatalities from Covid-1 .
The death toll in Italy yesterday rose to 16,523 with 132,547 confirmed cases. But there was some hope as the number of infections rose by 3,5 yesterday – the lowest daily rise since March 17 – and the government began to consider reopening businesses.
Meanwhile, residents in Lombardy, the region worst hit by coronavirus, have been forced to scrounge scarce protective face masks or make their own after authorities ordered anyone going outside to cover their nose and mouth.
With protective gear in short supply globally, the northern region pledged to distribute at least 3million masks through supermarkets, pharmacists and tobacconists. Until they arrive, many people have been forced to make do with scarves or make substitutes.
Lombardy, the region around the financial capital Milan, is where the epidemic first emerged in late February. More than 50,000 cases have been recorded there and almost ,000 have died. The much-needed masks are set to be distributed from this week.