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Empty streets, some flags hanging from the windows and a mayor trying to comfort his fellow citizens: this is Vertova , a town where in a few weeks 1% of its population died due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is worse than a war," said the mayor, Orlando Gualdi , who counts the deaths of his people near Bergamo , in front of the closed doors of the municipal cemetery.

Since March 1, there have been some 40 deaths in that town of only 4,600 inhabitants, six times more than in a normal year. In the billboards of the municipality, the announcements and obituaries are counted by dozens.

As is tradition, many of the obituaries carry the photo of the deceased, almost all of them elderly. This is the case of Carlo Crotti , Aurelio Zaninoni , Bruno Maffeis ...

The cemetery is closed to avoid meetings that could encourage the spread of the virus, and family members cannot say goodbye or cry to their dead. Only funeral home owners may enter to deposit coffins pending cremation. On Tuesday, four other coffins were placed on chairs inside an empty chapel.

"No one deserves such a horrible death. It is absurd to see a pandemic in the middle of 2020, it is worse than a war," Gualdi insists to AFP.

"Between March 1 and 24 we have counted 36 deaths. In an entire year the number of deaths in Vertova ranges from 55 to 62 , with that I explain the magnitude of what is happening," he adds.

Vertova is located about ten kilometers north of Bergamo, in the Serio Valley, one of the areas where the coronavirus has spread with particular virulence, without the causes being known.

As everywhere in Italy, and almost all of Europe, the streets are deserted, the shops have closed and the mayor walks through a ghost town hoping to offer some comfort to the imprisoned citizens and inquire about the state of the most fragile and vulnerable.

"Unfortunately, we don't have masks or disinfectants in town. I had to make my own mask, with a cloth and my sewing machine," said Augusta Magni , a 63-year-old resident.

"The situation is tough. Each of us has concerned family, friends and acquaintances. We hope the situation improves quickly," says Claudio Bertocchi , a 62-year-old sales agent.

Behind him, Italian flags flutter on the balconies, next to sheets and posters decorated in the colors of the rainbow by children.

"Andra tutto bene", "Everything will be fine", says one of them, one of the national slogans.

The slogan of hope has gone viral and tries to help face the difficult situation in the country, despite the silence that reigns in the streets and alleys of the village.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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