'Why is the UK panic buying?' Black Country woman on life in locked-down Venice

Jayne Seddon has only left the house to go to the shops in over a week, and her trip back to the UK for her mother's 88th birthday was cancelled.

The 59-year-old, originally from Kingswinford, has been living in Italy for more than 20 years and works organising special social events.

She said: "I work in weddings and events and now weddings are slowly being cancelled as we speak. It's people's dreams.

"I never expected in Italy to be locked down."

• Click here for all the latest coronavirus news

Jayne said the first changes were carnival cancellations at the end of February, then sports events and cinema trips were stopped.

The schools have now been closed for nearly four weeks.

"I'm used to working from home so a lot of things don't change for me in some ways," she added.

"I was going to come back on the 14th and I just thought no way am I travelling and risking taking the virus back to see my elderly mum, then the flights were cancelled anyway.

"Every week they seem to be getting stricter and stricter because the problem was after the first announcement, the Italians were still doing what they normally do.

"The last time I went out was a week ago, I have done a food shop once in that time.

"It's a bit scary. A lot of people say Italy was late to deal with this but I don't think they could've done it any quicker.

"I don't understand people buying toilet roll in the UK, here people go into the supermarkets and stand one metre apart and queue, which I've not seen here before.

"What's really scared people is the hospitals aren't going to cope, they are having to choose who to save.

"Now I've heard they're going to be testing people outside supermarkets and keep their names for the local councils."

But Jayne has managed to do teach English online and do gym classes while on lock down.

"We can all manage with two weeks at home but the minute you use the word 'quarantine' it all changes," Jayne added.