Coronavirus Countermeasures Monday

Monday, 24 February, 2020

Easily the number one topic of the day in all of Italy is the Coronavirus outbreak in the two northern provinces of Lombardia and the Veneto.

The Veneto includes the city of Venice while in Lombardia the outbreak has been centered in Milan about 25 miles southeast of us here in Varese.

As a result, many steps have been taken to hopefully slow down the pending epidemic.

At Venice's 2019 Carnevale

 Also from last year's colorful Carnevale

This past weekend, Venice's Carnevale was cancelled.

Carnevale is probably Venice's single biggest event each year.

 Even Italy's national passion,

Serie A calcio, has been postponed

As this letter informed us,

lots of necessary disruptions

are in store

In Lombardia, closures until further notice were ordered for all universities, schools, libraries, museums, theaters (including the famed La Scala Opera House) and cinemas.

As a result, our usual Monday session teaching flag football tactics and fundamentals to elementary school students in Vedano Olona was put on hold.

Coffee bars were ordered to close at 6:00 p.m. At the bar that I visited this morning, all of the brioches were individually placed in hand labeled white paper bags to reduce the possibility of infection.

Shopping malls are to be closed on the weekend to further limit possible infectious contacts.

As for sports in general, practices and games have been cancelled and postponed.

All Italian DII games for this coming weekend's season opening round have been rescheduled. Our home game against the Modena Vipers will now be played on Saturday, March 21st.

Our new season opener, if we are allowed to play, will now take place on Sunday, March 8th at 2:30 p.m. at the home of the Savona Pirates.

Our Tuesday night practice has been cancelled but we may be able to hold a workout on Thursday. The Health Department officials, late today, amended their stance on practices if they are held outdoors, not in gyms. We can practice outdoors so long as no one uses the locker room facilities.

 Even these guys left the Supper

table in Milan during the crisis

I went to the Esselunga Supermarket for supplies and found that the stay-at-home theme of the Coronavirus outbreak had made for a bunker mentality that led to a vastly depleted supply of goods today.

The produce section was only

at about 50% of normal

 Pasta was in short supply

Over the years living in Italy, I have been asked on several occasions to reach items for shoppers on various market's upper shelves.

I'm guessing that short Italian women are the reason why so many pasta boxes remain on these upper shelves.

The pasta sauces were also

in short supply too

Again, the upper shelf was still fully stocked.

Fortunately, all of the shelves were being re-stocked as quickly as possible but at the check-out lines, people carts were all overflowing in fear of possible future shortages.

These new shopping/hoarding techniques may indeed create this anticipated shortage.

I liked the look of this

old school rice box

With so many shelves emptied, this box caught my eye. for the first time.

Finally, one of the Skorpions designed a new look Coronavirus themed football uniform inspired by the Black Plague masks that were made popular in Venice centuries ago.

What do you think?

Stay tuned . . .