A minute of silence and three-color flags at half-mast in front of all the town halls of the peninsula: Italy gathered on Tuesday in "memory of the victims of the coronavirus" and in tribute to health professionals.
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For a little over a month, more than 12,400 people have been carried away by the Covid-19 (837 more in the past 24 hours), a record that makes Italy the most bereaved country in the world. world. About 4,000 people remain hospitalized in intensive care services.
On Capitol Square in Rome, Mayor Virginia Raggi, who wore a tricolor scarf on a black coat, spoke of "an injury that affects the whole country". "Together, we will get out of it," she promised.
"It is our way of remembering the victims (...) and paying tribute to the sacrifice and commitment of health professionals" , explained the president of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, Antonio Decaro , also mayor of Bari (Apulia, South), in a press release.
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This initiative started with Gianfranco Gafforelli, president of the department of Bergamo (North), one of the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. "Despite the serious crisis we are experiencing, we do not want to make discomfort prevail, but remain united as much in the mourning which is hitting areas of the country more severely as in the solidarity which must keep us united, all together" said Antonio Decaro.
"In solidarity with Italy", the Vatican has also lowered its flags at half-mast "to express its proximity to the victims of the pandemic in Italy and in the world, to their families and to those who fight with generosity to put there end, " he said in a statement.