FOR two weeks now Bolton expatriate Peggy Johnson has been unable to see her son, barring a few brief moments of conversation snatched from either side of a fence.

Life in her home province of Lombardy has ground to a halt as the coronavirus devastates towns, villages and cities across Italy.

As the country battles to contain infection rates and stem the ever increasing tide of fatalities, Ms Johnson has issued a warning to the people of Bolton and the UK, to heed calls for social distancing.

“The UK is two weeks behind Italy, you need to act now,” she said. “In Italy it is really bad and really scary.”

Over the last two months Italy has become the worst affected country in Europe. Confirmed cases of the Covid-19 infection are now topping 50,000, while deaths have reached almost 5,000.

In a bid to contain the spiralling crisis, Italian authorities have introduced a raft of stringent restrictions, placing the country on an ever tightening lockdown.

Around 70 per cent of Italians are now confined to their homes, only able to leave to get essential food and medicines, or exercise within a 100 metre radius.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Ms Johnson said: “We should have locked down earlier, but Italy still reacted very quickly considering we didn’t get what was going on.”

When the outbreak hit, and with a history of pneumonia, Ms Johnson decided to take no chances in preventing her exposure.

“As soon as the first case arrived in Italy I started wearing a mask", she continued.

“Quite a few people started making fun of me, but I thought if it’s going to happen like it has in China it’s best to be prepared. And then people started dropping like flies ­— it was terrible. We went from one case to a few hundred in a weekend. It took people totally by surprise.”

At the hospital nearest to Ms Johnson’s home, in the usually idyllic village of Montevecchia, ambulances are now daily queuing up to bring in infected patients in need of care.

Residents visiting supermarkets for food are forced to wait two metres apart for hours on end, with queues extending for hundreds of metres into the surrounding fields.

A few miles away in Bergamo, churches have been converted into makeshift mortuaries, as the bodies of virus victims begin to pile up.

While, the centuries old Italian practice of tolling church bells to mark a death has ceased, as it had tragically become constant, Ms Johnson said.

“They could not keep up with the level of people who were dying,” she added. “That really brings it home.”

Tragically, Ms Johnson has already lost friends to the coronavirus outbreak, and she also fears for the safety of her son, motorbike racer Nicholas Rovelli, who is continuing to work in a factory, and his girlfriend – who is a nurse on the frontlines of the fightback against the infection.

However there are glimpses of light, as communities come together to support one another.

Montevecchia’s mayor keeps in regular contact with villagers to ensure their safety and wellbeing. And grocers from the next village make deliveries of fresh produce to isolated people.

“The atmosphere here is really good,” Ms Johnson said. “Everyone is pulling together.”

Another unexpected positive of the outbreak has seen Ms Johnson get back in touch with many of her old school friends from Bolton.

“I have even got in touch with people I have not heard from in ages,” she said.

Born and raised in the Heaton area, Ms Johnson moved to Italy in the 1980s, initially working as an Au Pair.

Although she at first intended to only stay for a few years, working as an English teacher, she fell in love with the lifestyle and culture and settled down to start a family.

She now works as an artist and has a radio show for Italians in the UK.

Using her platform Ms Johnson is now warning people in Britain to take the actions needed to help respond to the pandemic.

“I’m not scaremongering, I just want people to know how serious this all is and to take it seriously,” she said. “We don’t need to be neurotic ­— just stay at home and stay safe. It’s not rocket science, if people are not mingling, there will be less contact, fewer infections and less deaths; it’s simple maths.

“But the spread will be exponential if people keep on going out.”

She added: “I’m sure that Britain will pull together because it in our nature. It’s in the English spirit.”