中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　当地时间31日，意大利民事保护部门负责人、新冠病毒应急委员会专员博雷利在疫情通报会上表示，截至当天18时，意大利新冠肺炎累计确诊病例105792例，累计死亡病例12428例。

　　当天，包括意大利总统府在内的众多公共建筑降半旗，向所有新冠肺炎死者致哀。

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　自疫情在意大利暴发以来，新冠病毒感染者人数一路飙升，死亡率居高不下，意大利一时间成为整个欧洲防控形势最为严峻的国家之一。

　　然而，就在意大利新冠肺炎确诊人数破10万之际，位于中西部托斯卡纳大区普拉托市的华人社区成了此次疫情中的“防疫典范”，创造了当地5万华人无一人感染的记录。

　　In the storm of infection and death sweeping Italy, one big community stands out to health officials as remarkably unscathed: the 50,000 ethnic Chinese who live in the town of Prato.

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　普拉托市是托斯卡纳大区第二大城市，有超过19.5万居民，其中约四分之一为华人。

　　在意大利疫情暴发前，当地许多媒体预测，由于春节期间往返中国的人较多，普拉托将可能成为感染重灾区。然而，结果却出乎所有人预料。

　　Two months ago, the country's Chinese residents were the target of shameful discrimination, the butt of insults and violent attack by people who feared they would spread the coronavirus through Italy.

　　But in the Tuscan town of Prato, home to Italy's biggest single Chinese community, the opposite has been true. Once scapegoats, they are now held up by authorities as a model for early, strict adoption of infection-control measures.

　　“意大利曾担心普拉托的华人会成为感染源，但相反的是，他们做的比我们好得多”，托斯卡纳大区卫生官员伦佐·贝尔蒂说。据路透社4月1日报道，贝尔蒂透露，截至目前，普拉托的华人中“没有一例确诊病例”。

　　"We Italians feared that the Chinese of Prato were to be the problem. Instead, they did much better than us," said Renzo Berti, top state health official for the area, which includes Florence.

　　"Among Chinese resident in Prato there isn't even one case of COVID contagion," he said, referring to COVID-19, which has killed almost 12,000 people in Italy, more than in any other country.

　　普拉托市不仅是意大利华人密度最大的地区，也是全欧洲最大的华人社区之一。自从疫情在意大利暴发以来，当地华人就自觉采取积极的防疫和居家隔离措施。事实证明，他们的高度自律和负责得到了回报。

　　贝尔蒂表示，当地华人社区的零感染记录，使得整个普拉托市的新冠病毒感染率仅仅约为全国平均感染率的一半。

　　Ethnic Chinese make up about a quarter of Prato's population, but Berti credits them with bringing down the entire town's infection rate to almost half the Italian average — 62 cases per 100,000 inhabitants versus 115 for the country.

　　早在一月底，普拉托的华人社区就已经自发进入封锁状态。此时，大部分意大利人还照常外出滑雪、在咖啡馆聚会，距离意大利出现首个确诊病例还有三周。

　　Prato's Chinese community, built originally around the textile industry, went into lockdown from the end of January, three weeks before Italy's first recorded infection. Many were returning from new year holidays in China, the then epicenter. They knew what was coming and spread the word: stay home.

　　So as Italians headed to the ski slopes and crowded into cafes and bars as normal, the Chinese inhabitants of Prato had seemingly disappeared. Its streets, still festooned with Chinese New Year decorations, were semi-deserted, shops shuttered.

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　意大利于1月31日就停止了往来中国的航班，是最早停飞中国的国家之一。不过，很多在春节前回中国探亲的华人得以经由第三国返回意大利。意识到疫情的严重性，大批华人在返回意大利后开始减少外出，加强个人防护。

　　在米兰经营餐馆的华商弗朗西斯科·吴表示，他在2月时就呼吁意大利同行关门，然而当时却没有被理解。“大部分人看我就像看到了卡桑德拉（凶事预言家），没有人相信这里也会发生疫情”，他说。

　　Milan restaurateur Francesco Wu, a representative of Italian business lobby Confcommercio, said he urged Italian counterparts in February to shut down their businesses, as he had done.

　　"Most of them looked at me like a Cassandra," he said. "No one could believe it was happening here ... Now Troy is burning and we are all locked inside."

　　尽管闭门关店的做法不被意大利同行理解，但大批在意华商还是坚持关闭店铺、暂停营业。

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　普拉托市市长马泰奥·毕弗尼表示，正是因为华人居民从中国返回后“严于律己”的做法，这才创造了当地华人社区“没有一个中国人被感染”的记录。

　　另一名华商卢卡·周表示，他在2月4日从中国返回普拉托后便立即开始了14天的自我隔离，期间与妻子、儿子都未曾接触。隔离期结束后，他和当地其他华人一样，坚持在外出时佩戴口罩和手套，然而这在他的意大利朋友看来却十分“奇怪”。

　　When Chinese-born businessman Luca Zhou flew home from China on February 4 to rejoin his wife and 28-year-old son in Prato, he put himself straight into quarantine in his bedroom for 14 days, separated from his wife and son.

　　"We had seen what was happening in China and we were afraid for ourselves, our families and our friends," said the 56-year-old, who has a business exporting Italian wine to China.

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　“我的意大利朋友都用奇怪的眼神看我，我多次向他们解释应该戴口罩，但他们无法理解。”

　　After emerging from his self-quarantine, he ventured outside in mask and gloves. He said the few other Chinese on the streets also wore them, anxious not to spread the virus to others.

　　"My Italian friends looked at me oddly. I tried many times to explain to them that they should wear them ... but they didn't understand," Luca said.

　　无论是居家隔离还是外出佩戴口罩、手套等，这些都是普拉托当地华人自发、自觉采取的防疫措施。

　　“意大利没有让我做任何事，这些都是我们自发做的，如果我们没有这么做，那么中国人和意大利人都有可能被感染”，卢卡·周说。

　　"When I came back to Prato, no Italian authority told me anything. We did it all by ourselves. If we had not done it, we would all be infected, Chinese and Italians.”

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台

　　当地时间2月8日，意大利推出新规，允许从中国返回的学生暂停前往学校上课，但家长需提前申请。贝尔蒂称，此时，普拉托已经出现大量申请。当时有超过360个家庭的约1300人称其正处于自我隔离中，他们还报名参加了政府的健康监控计划。也正是从这个时候开始，他意识到了当地华人行为的不同之处。

　　Italy was one of the first nations to cut air links with China, on January 31, though many of its Chinese residents found their way home via third countries. On February 8, almost a month before closing all schools, it offered students returning from holidays in China the right to stop attending classes.

　　"In Prato, there was a boom in take-up," said local health director Berti, saying families had been obliged to contact his authority if they wanted to pursue this option. It was then that he began to realize how differently the Chinese were behaving.

　　More than 360 families, or around 1,300 people, registered as having put themselves into self-isolation and also signed up to his authority's health surveillance scheme, which monitored symptoms remotely and communicated with them in Chinese.

　　As Italian infections began to take off in late February and early March, some families, many of whom retain Chinese citizenship, even began sending children to relatives in China, alarmed at the attitude and behavior of Italians around them.

　　23岁的大学生齐亚拉·郑也是从中国返回意大利后便开始自我隔离的华人之一。她说，“我意识到事态的严重性，我觉得自己有责任为他人和身边的人做这件事。”

　　Another who went into self-isolation after returning home from China was 23-year-old university student Chiara Zheng. "I was conscious of the gravity of the situation. I felt a duty to do it for other people and those close to me.”

　　中国人社区,中国人社平台