Italy locks down apartment complex
COVID-19 detected in seasonal farm workers
MONDRAGONE, Italy — The governor of a southern Italian region insisted Friday that residents of an apartment complex quarantine inside for 15 days, not even venturing out to buy food, after dozens of COVID-19 cases among Bulgarian seasonal farm workers and Italians who live there were confirmed.
Wearing a mask to discourage virus spread, Campania Gov. Vincenzo De Luca told reporters that the national civil protection agency should deliver groceries to the estimated
700 occupants of the apartments in Mondragone, a seaside town about 32 miles northwest of Naples.
The complex must be kept in “rigorous isolation,” De Luca said. That means that for 15 days, “nobody leaves and nobody enters” the apartments.
Later on Friday, the governor said that of 743 swab tests performed on residents who live in the complex’ five buildings, 43 COVID-19 cases were detected, including those of nine homeless Italians who have been sheltering in one of the buildings.
Fueling some of the anger in the town had been word that some of the Bulgarians had fled from the complex, in defiance of the mandatory quarantine order. But De Luca said that all 19 who had run away had been tracked down and tested for the coronavirus, and “thank God, all tested negative.”
The entire town of 30,000 has been urged to be tested, and many people lined up Friday to have swab tests.
“Since this morning, when we started, we have done over 250 swabs. They have understood here the importance of being careful about this virus,” said a Red Cross volunteer, Massimo D’alessio.
The south has been spared the high numbers of coronavirus cases that have ravaged northern Italy.
Known for his particularly hard line on anti-contagion measures throughout the nationwide coronavirus outbreak this year, De Luca has vowed to lock down all of Mondragone if the number of cases at the hot spot reaches 100.
“Have I been clear? I’m used to speaking clearly,” De Luca told RAI state TV.
The apartment complex was put under lockdown earlier in the week, and all who live there were ordered to be tested for the virus after a handful of cases initially surfaced.
The Campania region has requested police reinforcements to impose the quarantine on the complex. De
Luca said the Interior Ministry had authorized an army contingent.
The apartment residents have balked at staying indoors in the hot, steamy summer days. Tensions flared on Thursday, with Italians in the streets jeering at the Bulgarians who live in the complex, but Friday tensions appeared mainly limited to name-calling.
“It is like a war between the two communities,” said Giuseppe Capotosto, a Civil Protection volunteer, referring to the Italians and the Bulgarians who live in the complex. “Basically there is no integration; we just would like to integrate these people, help them, but they have no intention to integrate in the community.”
The Bulgarians are harvesting string beans and other vegetables at farms near Mondragone.
Italians, migrants from Africa and Asia, and seasonal workers from Europe, including Ukrainians, Romanians and Bulgarians, are involved in picking fruit and vegetables at orchards and farms throughout Italy.
Igor Prata, an official from the CGIL labor confederation, told Sky TG24 in Mondragone that Bulgarians are among exploited farm workers.
During the pandemic, Campania has registered some 4,660 COVID-19 cases and 431 deaths, a small fraction of the nationwide cases and deaths.