This is sobering. Day by day there has been a greater awareness of the need to keep your distance from people, the importance of not shaking hands. Suddenly the elevator stinks of disinfectant. A man opening a door for you stands way back. You realize the girl on the cash desk in the supermarket is wearing rubber gloves. She apologizes when she sneezes and assures you it’s only a sinus condition. A manager complains to a boy at the deli counter that he should have said at once that his next-door neighbor has tested positive.

Everybody is being asked to think not just for themselves, but also for the community. Milan is a highly fragmented city. There are all kinds of ethnic groups — Chinese, Arabs, Hispanics, Filipinos, Indians, any number of Romanians and Slavs, Italians from every region. Even the locals are quite sharply divided between working and middle classes. And of course many of us communicate more online than on the street, speaking to people like ourselves in other countries and continents. But inevitably the virus is bringing a new awareness that we all share the same physical space, Milan, Italy. We really live here, and we sink or swim together. Perhaps we will even have to get to know each other, albeit without shaking hands. I sense a new spirit of unity.

The fallout for the economy will be huge. But paradoxically the government is very likely to be strengthened. The governing coalition is an association of two main parties (the center-left Democratic Party and the maverick Five Star Movement) who disagree on so much that their only reason for staying in office together has been to avoid an election that would favor the right-wing League party, led by the authoritarian and xenophobic Matteo Salvini. But now they have a major issue that’s easy to agree on and that will give them a chance to be united and decisive on behalf of the nation. Support for Mr. Salvini has begun to dwindle.

The government can also spend money. The Stability and Growth Pact, an agreement shared by all members of the European Union, requires Italy to keep its deficit within strict parameters. Even when every economic indicator would suggest the need to invest and spend, as in the present prolonged period of near-zero growth, the government is obliged to beg Brussels for the right to introduce this or that incentive. These requests are frequently denied, and the politicians appear powerless.

But in an emergency as dramatic as this, the government is in a position to seize control. The importance of the nation-state is suddenly obvious: Italians must decide for Italians. Measures to spend 7.5 billion euros, around $8.4 billion, have been announced. More, probably much more, is to follow. Businesses are to be compensated, parents with children of school age are to be given babysitting vouchers, a huge investment is being made to purchase medical equipment and increase hospital capacity. One suspects that when, God willing, the emergency is over, there will be those who will not want to relinquish this newfound power and the sense of identity and responsibility it brings.