Health

One year of the first coronavirus hotspot outside China

Codogno (Italy), Feb 18 (EFE) .- (Camera: Gonzalo Sánchez) A year ago the small Italian city of Codogno scared the world as the first major focus of coronavirus in Europe: "It arrived like a meteorite", recalls its mayor, Francesco Passerini, settled in the relative calm that experience in battle gives and, above all, the arrival of the vaccine.FOOTAGE OF CODOGNO.SOUNDBITES OF THE TOWN'S MAYOR, FRANCESCO PASSERINI.TRANSLATION:1- Let's say the vaccine is the atomic bomb if we must compare it to a conflict. First, we had rifles and pistols, which have been good at resisting: distance, masks, gel, but it is clear that medical science on the one hand and vaccines on the other are the two great weapons that we must use against this virus.2- We talked about something that was unimaginable, that in Codogno, in the centre of the Po, at that time it was said that the risk areas were ports, airports, large infrastructures that we do not have. So it seemed absurd. And on the other hand, what we had seen or heard were images that came from China, from far away places.3- If we must compare it, more than an avalanche it was a meteorite.4- I decided with the parish that they would let me use some churches. We started with that of Christ (CHURCH), which became a shelter for our neighbours who had unfortunately died.5-It really seemed like a nightmare period, in which on the one hand it seemed that everyone had been to Codogno, something that we hope will happen soon when everything is over and we can talk to each other without these masks. I invite you all because I really want to make Codogno as alive, beautiful, and happy as it was and wants to be again.6- Mainly (the problems of the neighbours) are economic. Currently, the worst-hit sector is the commercial sector, catering, SMEs, the self-employed, who mainly live from community services and in the last 12 months, some of them have only opened for three and a half or four months.