Italy closes investigation into alleged failures of COVID-19 lockdown

(Patria) - Italian prosecutors have closed an investigation into COVID-19 that accuses officials, including a former prime minister and a regional governor, of misconduct for failing to expand the lockdown zone in the early days of the pandemic to the northern city of Bergamo and its surrounding industrial valleys, AFP reports.

"Our goal was to reconstruct what happened and give an answer to the population of Bergamo and its surroundings," prosecutor Antonio Chiappani told Radio 24.

The case now goes to a court in Bergamo that will decide whether to indict more than a dozen suspects identified by prosecutors, including then-prime minister Giuseppe Conte, former health minister Roberto Speranza and Lombardy regional governor Attilio Fontana.

Conte said in a statement after the investigation was officially closed on Wednesday that he was "serene towards the country and the Italian citizens, because I acted with maximum dedication during one of the most difficult moments experienced in our republic."

Speranza also said he was "serene and sure that I always acted with discipline and honour in the interest of the country."

Fontana's lawyer said he did not expect his client to be among those indicted, adding that "Fontana was always questioned as an interested party," not as a suspect. The investigation states that mistakes were made in not extending the "red zone," which was initially imposed on a limited number of towns in the neighbouring regions of Lombardy and Veneto, to Bergamo, as the death toll there soared.

The investigation states that more than 4,000 deaths could have been prevented if the quarantine had been extended on February 27, 2020, as the province of Bergamo became Italy's COVID-19 epicentre. The city's morgue was so overwhelmed that the army had to send trucks to ferry coffins to other mortuaries for cremation.

Italy became the first country outside Asia to confirm COVID-19 cases on February 21, 2020, and the first death in another region a few hours later. The first "red zones" were introduced three days later in around 10 towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto, and were extended to the whole of Lombardy and 14 other provinces in the north on March 8. Conte placed the entire country under lockdown two days later.

Italy has recorded more than 188,000 COVID-19 deaths.