With around 16 inhabitants, Codogno has never been one of the best-known cities in Italy, but exactly one year ago, this small town in Lombardy saw its peaceful daily life shaken up by a microscopic organism.
It was February 20, 2020 when Mattia Maestri, then 38 years old, was admitted to Codogno Hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. Even though the patient had never traveled to China, doctor Annalisa Malara decided to subject him to a molecular test for the dreaded coronavirus Sars-CoV-2.
The result was announced the following day and confirmed that Maestri (who would survive after a month in hospital) was the first case of infection with the virus within the borders of Italy, which had already diagnosed three infected people until then, but all of them were imported from China.
“It’s as if a meteorite had fallen on our heads”, says the mayor of Codogno, Francesco Passerini, in an interview with HANDLE. “At first, I unconsciously thought that everything was under control, without imagining that, from then on, everything would change,” she adds.
On February 21 alone, health authorities in Italy detected around 20 cases of Sars-CoV-2, including Maestri's wife and friend, elderly people who frequented a shared restaurant, and employees and patients at Codogno Hospital.
Still groping for a scenario that would prove devastating, the government decreed an immediate lockdown in Codogno and nine other neighboring cities in Lombardy, in addition to Vo', in Veneto, which would record, on February 22, the first death from Covid-19 in Italy. .
“It was a strange, almost incomprehensible situation, but it had all the characteristics of something serious, which made me immediately close our city to protect the community,” says Passerini.
O lockdown of Codogno and neighboring cities is still today, a year later, the strictest regime implemented in Italy to contain the pandemic, with a curfew valid throughout the day and blockades by the Army. This system would be in effect until March 8, when the rest of Lombardy went into quarantine, but without a curfew.
“Now, fortunately, we know more about the virus and we know that it is possible to beat it, and we even have an additional weapon, which is the vaccine. We want to win it in memory of those who lost this battle”, says the mayor of Codogno.
Mortality
According to official government figures, exactly 95.486 people lost the battle against Covid-19 in one year of the pandemic in Italy.
This represents, according to Johns Hopkins University, the sixth highest mortality rate from the new coronavirus worldwide, behind only San Marino (which is within Italy itself), Belgium, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.
The first confirmed victim was retired bricklayer Adriano Trevisan, aged 78, resident of Vo', in Veneto. He passed away on February 21, 2020, in a hospital in Monselice, on the same day of his definitive diagnosis.
With 3,3 inhabitants, Vo' implemented a strategy of isolation and mass testing of its population, which made it possible to quickly identify the people initially infected: 89. With this, the authorities were able to monitor patients and trace contacts, also helping to understand the mechanisms of virus dissemination.
One of the findings of the experience – something now known by the scientific community – is that asymptomatic people can also transmit Sars-CoV-2, since the majority of affected people did not show any symptoms.
“On that February 21st a year ago, I learned of the death of patient Trevisan while flying to Australia. I got there and caught a plane to go back. I spent four days on planes,” says Professor Andrea Crisanti, director of microbiology and virology at the University of Padua, who turned Vo' into a laboratory to understand the mechanisms of the new coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic.
However, according to him, Italy did not learn much from Vo''s case, and the watchword for defeating Sars-CoV-2 is “tracking”. “Look at New Zealand: they had 25 positive cases and carried out 30 tests to track the virus,” he says. The Venetian city lost six residents to Covid-19 and today only has one infected person.
The first anniversary of Trevisan's death will be remembered this Sunday with the planting of an olive tree at a roundabout in Vo'.
“We could have had many more deaths. We learned the importance of distance and mutual respect, and every year we will remember that day”, says Mayor Giuliano Martini. (ANSA)
By ANSA
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