The mishandling of the Italian outbreak by the European governments (including ours) has been monumental. N.Italy is a proper economic hub, it has heavy industries, services and a lot of tourism (and Feb was skiing time and half term for most of Europe). It's also geographically in the centre of Europe and it has a huge flow of people both to neighbouring countries, but also to other hubs like the UK. easyjet has 7 flights daily from Gatwick to Milan alone!
I still don't understand why people who have been there were not screened upon their return in February, when we knew that the number of infections had started to rise there and we all knew about the mortality rates, the ventilators etc. And I am not saying this with hindsight!
Originally Posted by: xioni2