ROME (AP) — Italy has inaugurated a living monument to its COVID-19 dead as it marked the anniversary of one of the most haunting moments of the pandemic. On March 18, 2020 Bergamo’s death toll reached such heights that an army convoy had to transport the dead out because its cemeteries and crematoria were full. Italian Premier Mario Draghi visited Bergamo on Thursday to commemorate the anniversary. He was inaugurating a national day of mourning for Italy’s coronavirus dead, with flags flying at half-staff around the country and public authorities observing a minute of silence.Draghi laid a wreath at the northern city’s cemetery. He was also inaugurating a forest named in honor of the more than 100,000 victims in Italy, the first country in the West to be hit by the outbreak.
