Who decided to use the army to take the bodies of the Covid dead from Bergamo? During these two years of the pandemic, many conspiracy theories have emerged about the iconic shooting of the armed forces trucks leaving the Lombard city, which has been mired in crisis by the spread of the virus. “We organized the first transfer on the evening of March 18 because we wanted to make as little noise as possible, but it was difficult to hide the passage in the middle of 10 army trucks with the carabinieri’s cars going back and forth.” Giuseppe Regina, lieutenant colonel of the provincial command of the Carabinieri of Bergamo, who had the task of planning the transport of people who died of Covid on military vehicles, spoke.
Two years later, Regina is at her place in the office from which she coordinated the security operations on the day of remembrance of the victims of Covid, which brought the President of the Chamber, Roberto Fico, to the city: “I was here he tells AGI when this photo was published. I saw it but didn’t have time to think it would mark a historical section. At that time we had other things to consider. Although the crematorium in Bergamo was operating at full capacity, it could dispose of less than 30 bodies in 24 hours, when up to 200 people died a day at the time. Since the hospitals were full, the Carabinieri, the Prefecture, the Municipality of Bergamo and then the other neighbors decided to create three centers, the first in the church of the city cemetery, where the bodies could be brought together to avoid further health problems.First the deceased went to hospitals, then to homes. To dispose of the bodies and here Regina shows her modesty the expression tr oppo bureaucratic we decided to turn to other cities outside Lombardy, all of which were in a bad state. At one of the many meetings, the issue of the number of cars arose because the funeral home had reduced staff due to sick Covid staff and was unable to provide the service. The army provided the trucks and we carried out the first transfer of 65 bodies to Modena and Bologna. We had to give a strong response to the families of the deceased.”
“On board those trucks Regina continues there were often people we knew, friends and even former colleagues. For all we had the same feeling of affection and compassion, we accompanied them as if they were family. Our spirit was to greet them for those who could not. In the months that followed, there were people who claimed that those trucks and those coffins were a photomontage. Regina measures the words: “There are those who say that the earth is flat, but now we know that it is not.” In this march of deep sorrow in the barracks of the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri of Bergamo, like Regina it calls “a miracle: None of the Carabinieri fell ill with Covid.
