Status: 02/21/2021 4:18 a.m.
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Italy’s nightmare began a year ago in Bergamo: Almost all residents have lost relatives or friends. The second wave has so far failed to appear – and yet the city is still experiencing the Corona emergency.
From Ilanit Spinner,
ARD-Studio Rom
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The way back to normal was difficult for Stefano Fusco. His grandfather was one of the first corona deaths in Bergamo – and he died like so many in the region without his family being able to say goodbye to him. That leaves its mark.
Stefano lives in a small village 20 minutes from the city of Bergamo. You can usually hear an ambulance here every two days. During the lockdown last March, the 32-year-old was sitting in his garden and decided to count all ambulances. At 128 he had to stop because he could no longer.
Italy: One year after the Corona shock in Bergamo
Ilanit Spinner, ARD Rom, Europamagazin, 19.2.2021
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Schools, shops and cafes open
A year has passed since those weeks, and at first glance there is no longer any sign of that. People have long been going out again, sitting in cafes and restaurants. Schools and shops are open. This time, the city was largely spared from the second corona wave.
Bergamo a year ago: a convoy of Italian army trucks is unloaded upon arrival from Bergamo and brings corpses of coronavirus victims to the cemetery in Ferrara, Italy, where they will be cremated.
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While the Giovanni XXIII hospital was the epicenter of the pandemic last year, things are very different today: the hospital has ten times fewer deaths and ten times fewer patients to complain about. The head of the emergency department, Dr. Luca Lorini suspects that the people in Bergamo now have a kind of natural vaccination protection.
“Many of the citizens who had antibodies in their blood in March were tested again in December and still had the antibodies eight months later. Virtually none of these people got infected a second time,” he explains. “There is no other medical explanation for this.”
Worry about mutations – and poverty
After the first wave, the city’s health department had large-scale blood tests carried out. These showed who was already infected with the virus. More than 40 percent of those tested had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The fact that significantly fewer people were infected in Bergamo, while a second wave of infection rolled elsewhere, could therefore be an indication of at least partial herd immunity. It has not yet been proven beyond doubt.
Carlo Tersalvi, the medical director of the Bergamo Health Authority, is watching the phenomenon with caution. “We cannot say with certainty: We have herd immunity. But we see that the second wave was clearly weaker in our country than in other provinces. Now we have to look at the mutations that are currently in circulation, because they can Virus and completely change the situation here, “he points out. “Besides, nobody knows how long the antibodies will protect against a second infection.”
The citizens of Bergamo have another problem: as everywhere else in the country, poverty has increased here too. More than 500,000 workers in Italy have so far lost their jobs. And there will probably be as many again.
According to Caritas, families with children, women and young people are particularly affected. In a church institution at the entrance to Bergamo, volunteers cook for those in need and prepare food packages every day. In the past, mainly refugees came, but that has changed: There are now many locals here – almost twice as many as before Corona. For some, it’s the only real meal of the day.
Members of the group “Noi Denunceremo” (We accuse) in front of the justice building in Bergamo.
Image: AFP
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The lockdown came much too late, many complain
Stefano Fusco does not want to accept the fact that it has come this far here. After the death of his grandfather, he founded the organization “Noi denunceremo” – “We accuse”. Thousands of people have joined him. For them one thing is certain: The lockdown in Bergamo came much too late. While other places in the region had long been cordoned off, life just continued here. 250 complaints about the failure of the authorities have been submitted to the prosecutor.
Fusco hopes to change something: “The anger is there, but it is an anger that we want to transform into something constructive,” he says. “And then there is still the hope that certain things that we have seen and with which we still have to live today will not happen again.”
Fusco has learned to deal with his experiences. There are still messages from back then hanging on the balconies in his neighborhood – but now he wants to look ahead and hopes for a new beginning a year after the Corona catastrophe.
The “Europamagazin” shows these and other reports on Sunday, 12:45 pm in the first.
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