Chapter 15 Virus diary

Diary of a Virus

March 21, 2020, Italy. Three weeks had passed since the day David had been admitted to the hospital in Rome. Nina has had a harder time than he has, her symptoms were stronger, and she has suffered much more to recover than David has. But even he, who had iron physical health, had low immunity due to the stresses and emotional crises. They both recovered, apparently without sequelae, needing only physical therapy, and were moved to isolated apartments to continue their quarantine and social isolation. They were not allowed to leave the country, no one was allowed to leave or enter. Flights were canceled, schools closed, movie theaters, all public places were closed. People were ordered to stay at home and were subject to fines if they left their homes.

Their agents, Paul and Tony were also contaminated, but they were fine. They used all their power and knowledge to get them and David transferred to their home country, even if they had to charter a private jet and continue the social isolation from their homes, but David was not going to leave there without Nina, and even if they had to take Nina along, against her will, she could not enter the UK, and David could not enter Norway.

Since March 13, Norway had banned visits to the country through Oslo airport. Norwegian and Nordic citizens, foreign residents in Norway, and people who were still in another country were allowed anyway. Other citizens and foreigners were screened separately. On March 16, this was extended to all Norwegian and non-Norwegian Nordic citizens. On March 14, the second and third deaths caused by COVID19 were reported. On March 16, non-residents were banned from entering Norway. So they decided to stay in Rome until further notice.

David and Nina were isolated in the apart-hotel, being accompanied by the medical team that was in charge of them. They made video calls every day. They were following the whole crisis and the impacts of this pandemic up close, they were in the eye of the hurricane in the middle of Italy! They had nowhere to run to, nobody did! The news about the rest of the world was no different from the picture in Italy. Although the news around the world was worrying, with only numbers and deaths everywhere, the gossip and entertainment websites forgot about the gossip and comment about David for a long time.

His team informed the press about his state of health, about his stay in Italy, and thus changed the focus of all the criticism, leaving Nina out this time. There was no more talk about the photos of David walking freely through the streets of Italy with a mysterious woman. No more talk about the making out the two of them outdoors on the balcony of the apart-hotel in the spa. There was no more speculation about David's love affairs. People were all appalled and terrified of an unknown future. They were panicking in fear of what the "coronavirus" might cause. Nina spoke almost constantly with her family and friends on the telephone. Kara and Lyon were also recovering well. At least this was a relief to David and Nina's minds in the midst of so many tragedies.

Clusters had been banned, and anyone who disobeyed was subject to the punishment of a fine, so the film and series recordings of the biggest production companies in the film world announced the closure of their recording "sets". Film releases postponed.

TV programs, newspapers, "shows" and world events had to adapt to lives broadcast by streamings on the internet, or canceled. Rock in Rio Lisbon, where the singer Anitta was to perform, was canceled, Coachella, the world's biggest festival that takes place every year, where the Brazilian singer Anitta was also to perform, had been canceled. This is what Nina was reading on several websites in her sonyz1.

The whole world was at a standstill. Thousands of people lost their jobs or were put on indefinite work permits. No one could go out, no one could come in, they could not receive visitors, there were many recommendations, wearing masks, not wearing masks, many discussions and doubts about how to proceed, people had to keep two meters away from each other initially, then only one meter was enough... And the list was never-ending and never stopped updating!

Nina was very lucky. So lucky that even winning the lottery would not have compared to the luck she had to be cared for together with David Nichols by the best medical team in the place. She didn't have to stay in an intensive ICU being intubated to breathe through machines while she was in Italy, but if she had needed one, one was available for her. Although the country was being the epicenter of the pandemic at the time, thousands of people in Italy and the rest of the world did not have a David Nichols in their lives when they were infected with the virus, because no country and no healthcare system would have had the capacity to have so many breathing apparatus and intensive care units for so many patients at the same time. Patients who had to be hospitalized for three to four weeks...

...And even if Nina had managed to get back on the flight to Norway together with Kara and Lyon because they had already arrived there sick, she would have been taken care of promptly and properly if she had needed an ICU, as was the case with her friends because Norway did not have as many cases as Italy, let's remember the facts exposed in several internet sites, including one of them, Wikipedia:

...On February 26, Norway confirmed the first case of Covid-19. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health announced that someone tested positive for SARS-cov-2 after returning from China the previous week. The patient was asymptomatic and without chronic health problems. She underwent voluntary isolation in her home in Tromsø.

On February 27, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health announced that three more people had tested positive for SARS-cov-2. Two of them lived in Oslo and were linked to the outbreak in Italy. The other lived in Bærum and was linked to the pandemic outbreak in Iran. All were subjected to voluntary isolation at home. While in Italy, on March 27, the Italian government reported that 919 people had died, breaking another record for fatalities in the country. The following day, the death toll in Italy surpassed ten thousand deaths, after recording 889 new fatalities.

On February 28, an individual from Bergen and another from Oslo tested positive and were placed in isolation at home. Both had visited northern Italy. On February 28, there were six confirmed cases in Norway while in Italy the numbers were staggering.

In Norway on March 20, 32% of those admitted to ICU with coronavirus were 25-49-year-olds, on March 26, the country recorded 3,667 cases and sixteen deaths. On March 28, the country recorded 3,811 cases and twenty deaths. As of March 29, the country recorded 4,281 cases and twenty-five deaths. While in Italy in total, by March 28, more than 10,000 people had died as a result of the virus infection in the country. The entire Italian territory is under strict quarantine.

Earlier on Friday, authorities said that the restrictions would probably be extended for longer. Since the beginning of April, however, the increase in the number of deaths has begun to drop in much of Italy. Measures were taken by the government, such as social distancing, have been pointed to as some of the reasons for the decline in daily fatalities...

Meanwhile, David and Nina were trying to adapt more and more to each other in their routines. Soon they would be able to travel together to Norway. For although the virus was spreading fast all over the world, still Norway contained the numbers of deaths and infected.