- Italy has rapidly become Europe's hotspot for the coronavirus. As of Wednesday, there were 322 confirmed cases, and 12 people had died from it.
- The government put 11 towns in northern Italy on lockdown to try and stop the coronavirus from spreading.
- San Fiorano is one of the those towns. One local teacher named Marzio Toniolo documented what life is like in the lockdown for Reuters.
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In San Fiorano, a small town in northern Italy, four generations of the same family are taking their temperatures and watching the news, waiting for word about the coronavirus.
Their town, along with 10 others, is on lockdown for at least two weeks. Military police stand guard at the exits. No one is allowed in or out, unless they have a special permission. Anyone who tries to leave could face up to three months in prison, according to Reuters.
Italy has become a hotspot for the coronavirus. On Friday there were only three confirmed cases. By Wednesday, 12 people had died from it, and there were 322 confirmed cases. The lockdown is to try and stop the coronavirus from spreading further.
Local primary school teacher Marzio Toniolo documented for Reuters what it's like inside San Fiorano, where mass is cancelled and bars are closed. Along with counting down the days, monitoring temperatures, and stockpiling food, he said it's been difficult for some to comprehend what's happening.
He described to Reuters the difficulty of explaining to his elderly grandfather why the bar was closed. In the end, he relented to calling the coronavirus, "the Spanish flu," since it was a common term used as a catch-all to describe past pandemics.
Here's what life looks like in San Fiorano, Italy, under coronavirus lockdown.