COVID: Italy honors dead with living monument in Bergamo

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi headed to Bergamo to commemorate over 100,000 lives lost to the pandemic as the horrifying images of the crisis still haunt the city.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday paid tribute to coronavirus victims as he marked the first annual day of commemoration.

The ceremony took place in the former epicenter of Bergamo. March 18 marks the oneyear anniversary of the army being called in to help transport coffins out of overflowing cemeteries in the overwhelmed northern city.

Draghi inaugurated a forest in honor of the victims and laid a wreath at the cemetery in Bergamo. The mayor of Bergamo said the idea was to "honor victims with a work that is alive."

What happened in Bergamo?

When the coronavirus pandemic struck Europe one year ago, it devastated Northern Italy the most.

The world watched as images of overwhelmed funeral services, overflowing hospitals and trucks carrying bodies away showed the traumatic epicenter.

In March 2020, during the height of the outbreak, 568% more people died in Bergamo compared with the 2015-2019 average, according to Italy's National Institute of Statistics.

The city and the surrounding province then reported a total of 13,600 COVID-19 cases.

What is the situation in Italy now?

Italy has recorded at least 103,432 deaths linked to COVID-19, the highest toll in Europe after the UK. The total number of cases stands at 3.28 million cases.

Three-quarters of the Italian peninsula, including Rome and Milan, went into lockdown again

on Monday.

The country is now battling outbreaks of the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.

The government is hoping the new restrictions and the ongoing vaccination program will pave the way for relaxing the measures later.