Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘She’ll be safer back in Italy’
The mayor of the Italian city worst-hit by the coronavirus outbreak has brought his daughter home from Kent - as he thinks she will be safer. Benedetta Gori has been studying for a masters in ethnobotany at the University of Kent in Canterbury.
But her father, Giorgio, was so concerned at how the UK government is handling the Covid19 crisis that he has rushed her back to Bergamo. According to unofficial figures, more than 600 people diagnosed with coronavirus are believed to have died in the province.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Gori says he also arranged for his younger daughter Angelica to return to Bergamo from a college in Taunton, Somerset. He said: “When I saw what the English government was thinking about this problem, I decided to bring them back because I think that even if we are at the centre of the epidemic probably they are more secure here than in England, because I don’t understand why the government didn’t decide in time to protect their citizens.” Across Italy, 59,138 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed and 5,476 people have died.
Disturbing footage has emerged in the past week from Bergamo’s main hospital of wards rammed with beds filled with patients in great distress. People in the region are describing the crisis as “the apocalypse”.
The vast majority of those dying in the city are in the highrisk elderly group.
Mr Gori fears the true death total from coronavirus may be higher.
According to the mayor’s office, 400 people died in Bergamo and neighbouring towns last week - four times the number who died in the same week in 2019. But only 91 of them had tested positive for the virus. The University of Kent said to its students on Friday: “If you are planning to go home, given the increasing restrictions on people’s movements, we strongly suggest you do this sooner than later.”