Letters | Coronavirus pandemic: as Italy follows Hubei but EU fails to follow China, will European resilience survive the Covid-19 test?

It is Covid-19, rather than the Belt and Road Initiative, that has brought China and Europe closer than ever before. Italians now face a situation similar to that confronted last month by the people of Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the outbreak and with a population size close to Italy’s. My country has quarantined 60 million people, with nearly 25,000 cases, over 2,335 recoveries and a fatality rate of over 7 per cent – twice the global average.

The country is on lockdown, with all public gatherings cancelled and all schools, theatres and pubs closed until April 3. The hashtag #iorestoacasa (I stay home) went viral, but people are still allowed to go out to work or for primary needs. Riots were reported at 27 prisons countrywide over new measures to contain the virus.

Meanwhile, the economy is slowing down and a crisis could be in the offing. The government will inject US$28 billion into the economy, but most shops are closed.

Furthermore, in the last decades, many economies in southern Europe have had to curtail expenditure on social services. There are three times fewer hospital beds in Italy today than there were in the 1980s. Meanwhile, countries like China are sending us troops and specialist doctors.

Many countries and European Union regions have imposed travel bans and quarantines on arriving Italians, but there still is no clear common strategy from Brussels. While the measures taken in Italy mirror those applied in Hubei province, the EU does not look to be as coordinated as China.