Duval County

Coronavirus Pandemic: Jacksonville woman in Italy wants Americans to take COVID-19 seriously

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local woman working in Italy is asking Americans to listen to medical experts and government officials telling them to stay home.

She’s thousands of miles from home in a country ravaged by the coronavirus.

“Everything is shut down besides grocery stores,” said Liv Badershores.

She doesn’t speak the language. And she’s all by herself.

“If something goes wrong, or I need to get tested and not speaking the language here, what do I do?” she said.

Badershores has been in a province called Trentino for about six months. She was transferred there for work. She said about three weeks ago, things started to change. Every morning at work. They began checking everyone’s temperature. And then last week, she was told to work from home.

“I have actually not left the house since a week ago,” said Badershores.

Badershores said the only reason people can go out is for work, medical reasons or to get supplies from the grocery store.

“We have a document that we have to complete so that if we are stopped by a police officer, they will understand why we are out,” she said.

Badershores shot video of police officers driving around telling people to stay inside. And Wednesday night, there was an ambulance next door to her place. She said it’s scary because she’s not sure why.

Now she has a message from the hardest-hit country: Stay home and take this seriously.

In Italy, there are more than 42,000 cases of COVID-19. More than 3,400 people have died. That’s the most in the world right now.