Italy on Monday marks its national
day of remembrance for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 18 was chosen as the day of memory because it was on that
day in 2020 that the most tragic and emblematic image of the
first COVID wave was recorded: convoys of army trucks taking
coffins away from an overloaded Bergamo, the worst-hit northern
city.
It is estimated that close to 200,000 deaths in Italy were
linked to the coronavirus.
President Sergio Mattarella said the pandemic showed how a
"coordinated response at a global level" was necessary to tackle
the challenges humanity faces and stressed the importance of
"recent research discoveries in which the European Union was the
protagonist".
He added that the coordinated efforts of "institutions at every
level" has made it possible to "contain an intangible enemy in
the name of a global rebirth".
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