▲ Trees planted in the northern Bergamo “Remembrance Forest” created to commemorate the victims of Corona 19
In Italy, where more than 100,000 people died from Corona 19, the first national memorial event was held in honor of the Corona 19 deaths.
The Italian government held a memorial service in Bergamo, northern Lombardy, in the presence of Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Sergio Matarella.
Prime Minister Draghi visited the city cemetery where the corona 19 dead were buried, gave a wreath, and attended the opening ceremony of the’Remembrance Forest’ in memory of the victims.
As the first step, 100 trees were planted in the Forest of Memory.
“This forest is not only a place to remember many victims, but a symbol of national suffering,” said Prime Minister Draghi.
He also stressed that Italy will overcome this pain and rise again, and that Bergamo will be a precious example.
Bergamo is also considered one of the regions with the greatest corona damage in Italy.
In March last year, when the spread of the virus was at its peak, about 10 pages of local newspapers were filled with obituaries, and as the crematorium work was paralyzed with overflowing corpses, military vehicles had to be mobilized to move numerous bodies to other areas.
At that time, the photographs of military vehicles moving in line were deeply imprinted in the minds of people around the world as an image symbolizing the tragedy brought about by the virus outbreak.
The Italian government designated March 18, when a military vehicle first transported the body from Bergamo, as a national memorial day for the victims of Corona 19, and held its first event this time.
Early in the public buildings throughout Italy, a one-minute silence was held with a memorial siren.
As of the 17th, the number of new confirmed cases of Corona 19 in Italy per day was 23,59 and the number of deaths was 431.
The cumulative confirmed cases were 328,810, respectively, and the deaths were 103,432.
(Photo = EPA, Yonhap News)