Italian PM Conte questioned by prosecutors over handling of Covid-19 outbreak, says he acted ‘according to science’
Prosecutors from the Italian town of Bergamo, which has been among the hardest-hit by Covid-19, have interviewed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte about the actions of the authorities during the early stages of the outbreak.
Conte spoke to prosecutors for about three hours on Friday. “I am not afraid of ending up under investigation, because I acted according to science and in good faith,” he told reporters before the interview.
“I immediately made myself available to the investigators to inform them of the circumstances that I am aware of,” the PM said, adding that if the course of events were replayed, he would act the same way.
Prosecutors are looking into why a strict quarantine regime, known as a “red zone,” was not imposed in February around the towns of Nembro and Alzano in the country’s northern Lombardy region, which suffered the highest concentration of Covid-19 deaths.