Italy marks one year since first native Covid case

Italy has one of the highest death tolls from the virus in Europe

The town of Codogno in Lombardy was where the first native Covid-19 case was identified (AFP via Getty Images)

Pope Francis and Italy’s president marked a newly established annual day on Saturday, put in place to honour healthcare workers who have been on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

The date comes exactly one year since the first known native case of Covid-19 was discovered in the southern European country.

On the evening of 20 February 2020, a hospital in the northern Italian town of Codogno reported its first case of coronavirus.

A 38-year-old man was identified as having Covid-19, yet had no links to anyone who had been in China, where the outbreak first began.

In the year since, Italy has so far suffered over 95,000 deaths from coronavirus. This gives the country the second highest total number of deaths after the UK.

In a message to honour healthcare workers caring for those infected by Covid-19, the pope praised the “generous involvement, at times heroic, of the professions lived as mission.”

The head of the Catholic Church thanked doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, likening their dedication in the fight against the virus to “a vaccine against individualism and selfishness.” He added that this dedication: “demonstrates the most authentic desire that dwells in the heart of man — be near to those who have the most need and give of oneself for them.”

President Sergio Mattarella marked the first National Day of Health Care Personnel by remembering those in the medical profession who have died from Covid-19.

According to professional associations in the medical sector, at least 326 doctors and 81 nurses have died due to coronavirus.

Mr Mattarella said that it was thanks to the professionalism and self denial of medical workers that the country had managed “to avoid the epidemic’s precipitating into an irreversible catastrophe.”

Italy’s public healthcare system is set to receive some of the 209 billion euros (£180 billion) in European Union funding to help the country rebuild from the devastation of the pandemic, economic and otherwise. 

Further anniversary commemorations are also scheduled for Sunday in Italy, this will inculde a ceremony in the town of Codogno, with commemorations particularly in the north of the country which was hit hardest by the first wave of the Covid pandemic.