Covid-19: 500 families of victims demand compensation from the Italian government

In Rome, the first hearing on the Covid-19 epidemic opens Thursday, July 8, and not the least.

500 families of virus victims are asking the Italian government for compensation up to 100 million euros for "

systemic negligence

" of the health authorities in the management of the epidemic, reports the Guardian.

To discover

• Covid-19: what we know about the Delta variant

Read also: Covid-19: in Italy, 300 caregivers take legal action against the vaccine obligation

“

Italy has been slow to introduce measures to contain the Covid epidemic. And when they finally did, these measures were not adequate,

”said Consuelo Locati, a legal representative of the families. In a file of more than 2000 pages, the lawyers of the families gathered testimonies and the evidence of a "

negligence

" of the health authorities which would have caused many deaths.

"

The pandemic plan and the strategies put in place to stop the infections did not take into account the structural deficiencies of the hospitals and of the Italian health system

" declares Consuelo Locati.

A document drafted by a WHO office in Venice published on May 13, and withdrawn the next day, notably pointed out the obsolete nature of Italy's pandemic preparedness plan, which dated from 2006.

First cases from December 2019?

In the file of the families of victims are also the latest findings which suggest that the Covid-19 was circulating before the first case of local transmission was officially announced on February 20, 2020. A man was notably admitted to a hospital in Lombardy as early as the end of January 2020 for bilateral pneumonia.

Other doctors in this region have also declared to have seen cases of "

strange pneumonia

"

from the end of December 2019

.

Cases ignored by the authorities but which could have avoided many deaths according to the lawyers of the families.

Read also: Covid-19: Does the WHO really have the means to investigate the origin of the virus?

For Consuelo Locati, “this

civil case calls into question the responsibilities of politicians and institutions and demands that they assume their responsibilities in front of the citizens whom they were called to protect and whose rights they have violated, both the right to health than the right to life

”.