Mullingar native living in Italy: We are doing everything we can to stay positive

(Above) A blocked path along Lake Iseo in northern Italy. The path has blocked by the authorities as part of the country's lockdown.

A Mullingar native living in northern Italy has given us a glimpse of what life will be like if Ireland has to go into full lockdown.

Chantel de Seta (nee Brady) and the other 16 million people living in epicentre of the coronavirus crisis that has engulfed Europe in the last month have been on lockdown since March 8.

While the Italian government extended the lockdown to the rest of the country on March 9, the restrictions imposed have not significantly slowed the spread of the virus, which at the time of writing had been contracted by over 80,000 people and claimed more than 8,200 lives.

Earlier this month, Chantel, who lives on the shores of Lake Iseo in the province of Lombardy with her husband Dario and three month old daughter Maya, spoke to the Westmeath Examiner about what the early days of being under lockdown had been like for her family. Her father Ross Brady also lives in Lake Iseo and at the start of the crisis temporarily moved in with Chantel.

Chatting to us via Facebook yesterday, Chantel said that after weeks of bad news, people in Italy are "finally starting to have some hope".

"We had two days of declining cases of those infected and dying. But yesterday it was up again Numbers are still very high but we are positive.

"The lockdown has gotten even more serious now, all walkways are boarded off now so there is no way people can go for walks. You must stay home. No update on when this will end, but every day at 6pm we have the results of the testing and unfortunately the deaths. The experts are saying they need to see 4 days consecutively declining before they can say it is trending down.

"Still horrific for all the families here, just so sad but we are doing everything we can to stay positive and hope the end is in sight."