Nigeria international, Simy Nwankwo, who plays for Crotone in Serie B in Italy, has opened up on how scary life has been since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country, adding that people have been living in fear and panic.
Italy is the most affected country in Europe with 17,660 confirmed cases and a total of 1,266 deaths recorded.
The country is virtually on lockdown as part of its government’s measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and people have been told to stay in their homes except for visits to grocery stores for supplies and pharmacies.
The country’s Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, also confirmed that travel ban had been placed across the country.
Simy gave an insight into how things presently were on every street in Italy.
“It is very scary; I must confess it is a very difficult situation. We just have to keep moving, respect the rules because at this moment it is much more important than football, so we just pray and hope,” he said on SuperSport Naija Made on Saturday.
“At the moment, it is a total lockdown, the government had to take a decision because the numbers were going high every day and it continues to go high.
“No training, everything is suspended, it’s not just about football, it’s about everything in the country.
“Presently we have only the grocery stores and the pharmacies open, so we are just told to stay home because at this moment the numbers are really, really high.
“As of today (Saturday), I think 15,000 people are affected, so what we do is stay home all day and do some little activities so as not to be out of shape but of course training is different.
“The streets are empty, people are panicking, so just stay home, pray and wish things get better.
“For us, we have time to spend with our families, that is true because we are always busy going around but at the same time staying home in this type of moment is not nice because there is always panic.
“We had a closed-door game and I had to come home panicking. I don’t know if I’m safe or if I’d picked up the virus, so it’s never good spending time like this at home.
“I think when things are over we’ll have more time to spend together,’’ he explained.