Italy celebrated the national day of remembrance for the victims of the corona pandemic for the first time on Thursday.
The flags were hoisted at half-mast in front of public buildings across the country.
At eleven o'clock, the nation observed a minute's silence for the more than 103,000 victims who have died of Covid-19 infection since the outbreak of the pandemic around 13 months ago.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi came to Bergamo for the occasion - the city was particularly hard hit by the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020.
Matthias Rüb
Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.
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March 18 was chosen as the date because on that day a year ago the pictures of army trucks were going around the world with which the coffins of the Covid-19 victims from Bergamo were brought to the crematoria in surrounding cities and provinces. "This place is a symbol of the pain of an entire nation," said Draghi. The Prime Minister laid a wreath at the Central Cemetery and opened the “Forest of Remembrance” with Mayor Giorgio Gori in a park near the “Pope John XXIII” Hospital. 750 trees and bushes are intended to commemorate the 750 mostly elderly people who died in connection with Covid-19 during the first wave of pandemics in the 120,000-inhabitant city alone. In the Bergamo province of the same name, which has a good 1.1 million inhabitants, more than 6,000 people died in the first wave.
The people in Bergamo and the surrounding area had "had terrible days" when they had no opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones, Draghi said. Mayor Gori recalled that Bergamo had become a “symbol of tragedy”. Today, however, the city also sends out “a message of hope”. Draghi reiterated the government's determination to accelerate the vaccination campaign to immunize around 80 percent of residents by the end of September.