Families of Italy’s coronavirus victims seek justice

An activist group in Italy, founded as a Facebook group for families mourning COVID-19 victims, is pushing for justice as an investigation continues into potential crimes surrounding the handling of the coronavirus emergency in the Lombardy region.

The Noi Denuceremo (We Will Denounce) group filed around 100 new cases with prosecutors in Bergamo on Monday, following on from 50 the previous month.

The Lombardy region has been the hardest hit by the virus, and the Noi Denuceremo Facebook page is a testimony to the hundreds of families affected. Family members have criticised the lack of beds in intensive care and medical supplies, as well as the treatment of victims such as relatives being taken to different regions to be cremated following the shortage of space in Bergamo’s cemeteries.

The activist group consists mainly of residents from the Bergamo and Brescia areas and is questioning the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in these centres. The group asserts that the government failed to close off the two areas in time, allowing the contagion to spread more rapidly.

Together, Bergamo and Brescia saw around a quarter of the deaths from COVID-19 in Italy.