Sitting inside her bedroom thousands of miles away, Varsha Kanth tells us what an average day in Italy is like in these Corona-ic times. Like a lot of 24-year-olds, she spends almost all of her time attending classes, listening to music and reading books. But for the past week, Varsha has been doing all of it in her pyjamas, inside her bedroom in Trieste in Italy.
After the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country, all the schools and universities have been shut until March 15. The latest WHO data says that Italy has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases, after China. Until now, 1128 people are affected by the virus. The death toll stands at 29. Even though the educational institutes are closed, the students in no way miss their lectures. "To facilitate our studies, our school conducts online webinar sessions. We have to register on a link and the professors conducts audio classes," says Varsha, who is pursuing her Master's in Insurance and Risk Management.
Hailing from Chennai, Varsha reached Trieste in October 2019, where she was enrolled in the Trieste School of Management. "I heard about COVID-19 in the first week of February, when two Chinese tourists were tested positive in Rome. But by the last week of February, many cases started emerging in Lombardy. Following the same, my university was closed on February 24," she says.
Varsha breathes a sigh of relief when she tells us that she personally doesn't personally know anyone who's affected by the virus. Apart from that, the region where she is in right now is not under the red zone too. However, everything is not the same as it used to be. "Almost all public offices and shops here are open. But no place is crowded these days. For someone like me, things haven't changed so much, considering I don't go out a lot," she says. "But at the same time, it is quite scary to see the number of cases go up in nearby provinces. Also, we do not know when our school will reopen. I hope it all gets back to normal in a month and they invent a vaccine soon," she says.
