SHS grad reflects on life in Italy during COVID-19 pandemic

SANDPOINT — Donovan Libring, a ‘94 Sandpoint High graduate; his wife, Caryn; and their three children — David, Isabel and Gianmarco — are counting their blessings

While they are among those restricted to their homes as part of Italy’s nationwide quarantine affecting some 16 million people, they have each other, and they are able to connect with family and friends through apps such as Skype and Zoom.

The family lives in Veneto region, about an hour or so north of Venice in the foothills of the Dolomites, part of the Italian Alps. One of the hotspots of Italy’s novel coronavirus outbreak, the family and the rest of the country have been under a national quarantine for the past several weeks. The country-wide mandate is the latest measure the country has taken to try and slow the spread of the virus, which has seen more than 92,000 cases with over 10,000 deaths. Schools were the first to close, followed by a slow increase in measures aimed at flattening the curve of COVID-19.

“In the last four days, we’ve seen a trend in the new cases where it’s trending downward,” Libring told the Daily Bee on Wednesday. “So that’s some good news.”

The Veneto region, like that of Lombardy, was identified in the beginning as one of the country’s hot spots, Libring said. While the outbreak wasn’t as bad in Veneto compared to Lombardy, he said the numbers were “keeping up.” In response, the region’s governor put some “pretty draconian measures into place but they have definitely quelled the numbers that we have,” Libring said.

While there was an explosion of the number of cases in Lombardy, which has more than 30,000 reported COVID-19 confirmed cases, the numbers in Veneto are six times less at about 5,900.

“In the very beginning it looked like we were going to go in that direction but they’ve done a good job of identifying, testing and quarantining,” Libring said. “I think our governor has done a lot more testing — we’ve done more than 66,000 tests.”

With Italy having a national health care system, everyone is covered so when something like a pandemic happens, Libring said people don’t base their health care on how it might hit their pocketbooks.

“Here it’s much different,” he added. “Everyone in the country is covered. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, this, that or whatever. You can even be an immigrant. It doesn’t matter. Everybody is covered, they’re not going to turn anyone away.”

Italy set up a national hotline, which residents call and answer a series of questions that helps doctors figure out where you are and who needs to be tested and who needs to quarantined at home.

While early on some thought the virus hit the elderly and those with autoimmune problems more severely, Libring said that isn’t the case. “Obviously they’re much more at risk but it is hitting even young people as well,” he added.

Libring suspect the disease exploded so quickly in some areas is because many didn’t know they were carrying the virus. “It just takes a cough or it just takes touching a surface that somebody touched who didn’t clean their hands properly,” he said. “Then the next thing you know, you’ve got it.”

Under the strict national quarantine, Libring said only certain destinations are approved — medical appointments and trips to the pharmacy are on the list, as are trips to the grocery store and the tobacco shop — which also serves as a place to pay bills and such. Each trip requires downloading a form, and filling it out saying where you are going and why.

Those who break the quarantine are subject to criminal penalties “if you are out when you’re not supposed to be out, doing what you’re not supposed to be doing.”

However, Libring said it’s not taken in a negative way. “It’s taken in the light that we want to protect every citizen including the person who might be committing an infraction of that law or ordinance,” he said. “It’s not big government, big brother is watching me kind of thing.”

At the grocery stores, stringent measures are in place, limiting how many people can enter at a time. Gloves are required as you enter as are masks, and hand sanitizer and paper towels are available to wipe down the carts and baskets. In some areas, a guard is present, watching to make sure too many people don’t enter at a time.

Libring said the supply chain is running smoothly in the country, with everything stocked.

“We have not had the panic buying like in America,” he said. “There were little waves of certain things where you would go there and go, ‘Where did all the potatoes go?’ But then the next day they had them stocked. Or the flour would disappear, some things like that, but the supply chain is continuing to come, people are working hard, and the essential services are all still functioning.”

Libring said it can be difficult not being able to go outside, especially for those used to going out, being social and staying active, such as those who play on his basketball team.

“They can’t see other people. I imagine it’s quite difficult,” he said. “I think in one sense we’re very fortunate to have a family of five because I at least have interaction with four other beings, whereas other people, imagine if you alone. Now you have to depend on technology which we’ve really been using very well and pretty hardcore.”

Libring and his wife volunteer as missionaries with Calvary Chapel Montebelluna and small Bible study college. Meetings, services and studies which took place in person now take place online, from Skype to Zoom to others.

As a translator, Libring has worked from home for the past 20 years, and is using to doing his job online so in many ways, he said his life has changed a little bit but not dramatically.

Because the job is mobile, Libring originally started in Spain before moving to France and then to Italy about 9 years ago.

While the family is under quarantine, which is set to be lifted April 3, they are spending time doing things as a family and his wife is keeping the kids entertained, doing different things, crafts and learning activities. Because they can’t go more than 200 yards from their apartment, Libring has been able to take the kids — ages 2, 4 and 5 — down to the garage to ride their bikes for 10 minutes or so. They’ve also been doing a lot of reading and Libring has been busy with work as well.

“But in the times I haven’t been we’ve taken advantage of the time, reorganizing the house, cleaning things, you know getting rid of stuff, figuring out what’s really valuable or not, what we need,” he said. “Doing maybe some of those things you don’t do until you really slow down.”

They’ve also spent a lot of time staying in touch with family and friends, videoconferencing and talking to others online. The rest of the time is keeping their family of five going, doing normal day-to-day chores and activities.

“Life for us has changed in certain fashions but a lot of our life has not changed because it’s the same-old, same-old every day,” he added. “We’re just confined to a smaller space.”

The biggest change is people not being able to be in contact with each other, Libring said. Before, there was Bible study on Wednesdays, church on Sundays and more. “Now being isolated and not being able to be in contact, that’s difficult for many people.”

In addition to the online chats and videocalls, Libring said many in the country have taken to creating signs and hanging from their balconies as a message of hope and inspirations to friends and neighbors. “It’s a sign to give hope to everyone, and it’s spreading all over the nation.”

Libring said he is worried many in the United States aren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough.

“People really need to know this is something serious and don’t think that it’s not going to come to your backyard because the virus does not discriminate,” he said. “It does not matter if you’re rich or you’re poor, black or white, famous or not famous or whatever it is, this is a serious situation.

“People need to take the guidelines of what the government is saying and really follow them and not ignore them, because people could be carrying the virus and spreading it to people who are more vulnerable without even realizing it and causing either the serious health condition or death of someone.”

People need to keep their distance and focus on the gravity of the situation instead of rushing out and panic buying or stockpiling a year’s supply of toilet paper.

“It’s kind of getting back to thinking about others and really, let’s all do our part to help others in this sense and be more considerate in thinking about others,” Libring said. “We know our own situation but we don’t know everybody’s situation and some people can be in a pretty precarious situation and so, if you follow these measures, we’re starting to see the numbers go down and it’s taken a long time.

“We’ve had to be quarantined for two weeks, complete shutdown, don’t-leave-your-house quarantine but it seems to be working.”

Once you’re in something like a quarantine where you can’t leave your house, you start to realize there is a whole lot more, Libring said.

“The positive message in all of this is you really actually figure out what’s important and it makes you really appreciate what’s important in life, who’s important in your life,” he added. “And that’s the good thing about all of this. If all of this happened just for us to realize that, it would be something I think will bring better perspective and balance in our lives.”

Libring said there has also been a sense of peace among those in his church and other faithful.

“It’s a completely different way but what I can tell you is amongst the believers here, God has really just given everybody a great peace,” he added. “We’re in a place where it’s going crazy and a lot of people are quite stressed or crazy or whatever and every time we talk to each other, we’re just like, ‘I have this peace that God’s given me’ and we’re trying to communicate that to others.”

Libring said his main fear is that many people won’t take it seriously enough because there aren’t many cases in their area. There weren’t many cases in their community at first either but then those cases became 5,000 or more.

“There were only [a few] cases here and then [those] cases became 5,000,” he added. “You just never know. You just never know. Err on the side of caution.”

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.