By Kathy Brown.
(March 23, 2020) — Bryan Gallant, HKHS Class of ’06, has been living in Italy to work on a certification program to teach English, and lived in the Netherlands for three years prior to that. On March 8, 2020, he and his girlfriend left Milan to go to her parents’ house in the south of Italy; the next day they quarantined all of Milan. “We had to sign a waiver saying that we had come from Lombardi, Milan,” explained Bryan. “We could not legally leave the house for 14 days.” The Lombardi/Milan area of Italy has had almost half of all Italy’s COVID-19 cases.
He and his girlfriend haven’t left the house for 18 days. He explained that the quarantine was not for his safety, but for others, to stop the potential spread of the virus.
Bryan’s girlfriend works for AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company, and has been working from home since February 20, 2020.
Everything has now been shut down in Italy since March 10, except grocery stores and pharmacies. There is a declaration and one person is allowed to go out once a week to get groceries and/or pharmaceuticals. “If the police stop you, you must have this present,” Bryan explained. He said that they eat from the garden and work at the house. He has made several projects since being quarantined.
He said that they will stay at his girlfriend’s parents’ house, and not return to Milan until the spread of the infection is finished. “I feel terrible for my friends and her family who are still stuck in Milan,” said Bryan.
In Italy, there have been 59,138 cases of COVID-19, with 5,476 deaths, as of March 23, 2020 (data here). In the United States, we have had 35,530 cases, with 473 deaths. One reason for Italy’s high death rate may be because it has one of the oldest populations in the world (23% of its population is over 65 years old, compared to 16% in the United States and 17% in China according to statista.com and prb.org).
Bryan has taken to Facebook to try to get the message out to protect his family and friends who still live in this area. He has been commenting on Facebook posts on the “You Live in Higganum if…” page trying to get people to limit their activities with others. When someone asked about local restaurants that do takeout, Bryan responded, “Where have those people been in the day, night? Who handles your food? Do they wear gloves, masks? So then you become contagious, then so do my friends and family the next day when you’re in the supermarket.”
He explained that “I was even going out and not paying attention, thinking it was lighter than it was. But it’s not the case. It is spreading because people [in America] keep going on like nothing is going to happen. So my opinion is that it will hit America hard just like it did here. Everyone is basically two weeks late. Everything has stopped here. All industries have stopped.”
“Watching the news every night here is devastating. I worry so much about my father and brother being there. People are not taking this seriously. It will be the same situation as it is here. Italy did the same things and thought it would be okay for take-out and other unnecessary luxuries. One week later, [the government] started closing different parts every day. Now we are in a total shutdown. All industries have stopped. Only necessities, food, with the death toll rising by the hundreds every day.”
“My family is all in Haddam. I hope the public would do this for them.”
Stay home. Stay safe.
Photos provided by Bryan Gallant.
