World News | Italian PM Questioned for Not Locking Down Bergamo Province at Start of Virus Outbreak

Rome, Jun 12 (AP) Premier Giuseppe Conte is being questioned by prosecutors investigating the lack of a lockdown of two towns in Lombardy's Bergamo province at the start of Italy's coronavirus outbreak.

Doctors and virologists have said the two-week delay in quarantining Alzano and Nembro allowed the virus to spread in Bergamo, which saw a 571 per cent increase in excess deaths in March compared to the average of the last five years.

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Lead prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota arrived with a team of aides Friday morning at the premier's office in Rome, Palazzo Chigi. In addition to Conte, she is expected to question the health and interior ministers.

Italy registered its first domestic case February 21 in the Lombardy province of Lodi, and 10 towns in the province were immediately locked down to try to contain the spread.

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Alzano and Nembro registered their first cases two days later, on February 23, but the government didn't quarantine them for two weeks until all of Lombardy was locked down March 7.

Conte told La Stampa daily that he acted based on “science and conscience.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)