Coronavirus: Italy's extreme new supermarket and hospital rules

Only two people at a time are allowed into supermarkets. Photo / AP

An Australian woman living in Italy amid its coronavirus lockdown has shared the crazy rule supermarkets are now imposing.

An Australian woman living in Italy has revealed the crazy rules locals are being forced to abide by after being put into lockdown after the coronavirus swept through the country.

Hermione and her Italian husband called through to KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show this morning to explain what the living situation is like – revealing that only two people at a time are allowed into supermarkets.

"We can still go to the supermarket but at this point there are lines and restrictions on what we can buy and how we're allowed to enter," she told the radio hosts.

"Our local supermarket only allows two people to enter at once, so since the lockdown was announced we haven't been as we've had enough supplies to get us through to now but I'll need to go soon. We'll have to write a long list and get there to stock up because this is just the beginning."

Describing the situation as "hard to believe" and "really surreal" the caller explained she lived in a little region in the middle of the country, not in the initial red zone around Milan, which made the lockdown even more of a "shock".

"Life since then really has been put on hold," she said, explaining the queues to buy food weren't too bad, with the average wait being between 10-15 minutes in her area.

"We have to stay in the house unless there's an urgent reason to leave, there are police patrolling the streets to make sure you're not going from one suburb to another ... it's extreme."

Doctor's heart-breaking decision

Previously, an Italian doctor described the heart-breaking decisions health workers were making on a daily basis as the country faces one of the world's deadliest coronavirus outbreaks.

In an interview that's gone viral online, anaesthesiologist Christian Salaroli told the Corriere della Sera newspaper hospitals were now having to run warlike operations, where younger patients with a higher chance of survival were being prioritised.

"If a person between 80 and 95 has severe respiratory failure, you probably won't proceed," he said.

Elderly patients who showed signs of multiple organ failure could rarely be saved, he explained, and doctors have neither the time nor resources to "tempt miracles".

"For now I sleep at night, because I know that the choice is based on the assumption that someone, almost always younger, is more likely to survive than the other," he said.

"At least, it's a consolation."

But Dr Salaroli said others, especially younger doctors and nurses, were struggling to cope.

"Some come out crushed … I saw crying nurses with 30 years of experience behind them, people who have nervous breakdowns and suddenly tremble," he said.

"I tell myself it's like war surgery. We only try to save the skin of those who can do it."