FAMILIES OF CORONAVIRUS VICTIMS SUE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT FOR $122 MLN

Wed 23 December 2020:

Around 500 relatives of people who died of COVID-19 in Italy said on Wednesday they were initiating legal action against regional and national authorities, seeking 100 million euros ($122 million) in damages.

The roughly 500 family members say the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis led directly to the deaths of their loved ones. Italy was hit hard by the virus, becoming the first country outside China to suffer the dramatic consequences of its aggressive spread.

The civil lawsuit, which the plaintiffs said they would present to a Rome court in the next few hours, is against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Health Minister Roberto Speranza and the governor of the northerly Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana.

The suit rails against the lack of an updated Federal coronavirus management plan — Italy was using an untried 2006 plan at the time the outbreak occurred — which in turn led to a lack of preparedness at the state level.

Not about money

To date, nearly 70,000 Italians have lost their lives to COVID-19, almost half since mid-July, when infections between the brutal first and second waves of infection were at their ebb. Unlike other EU nations, Italy has restrained from issuing overly strict lockdown measures since infections began to spike again in October. The government has, however, imposed travel bans over the holiday season to keep the virus from spreading from one region to another.

“Citizens gave the state and regional government the job of protecting their lives and they didn’t do it,” said Consuela Locati, a lawyer leading the civil case whose father died in the pandemic.

Locati said the suit is not primarily about monetary compensation: “It might only be one euro. But what that one euro would demo: Members of the “Noi Denunceremo” (We will report) committee outside the Bergamo’s prosecutor building nstrate is responsibility and the admission of responsibility.”

Photo: Members of the “Noi Denunceremo” (We will report) committee outside the Bergamo’s prosecutor building.