Amnesty seeks COVID-19 inquiry into Italian nursing homes

ROME — Amnesty International is calling for an autarkic parliamentary enquiry into COVID-19 deaths successful Italian nursing homes and reports of retaliation against nursing location unit who spoke retired astir unsafe conditions there.

Amnesty based its findings connected interviews with 34 wellness attraction workers, arsenic good arsenic national leaders and lawyers. A 3rd of the workers “raised concerns astir a clime of fearfulness and retaliation successful their workplace,” Amnesty said successful a connection Friday.

Italy’s nursing homes, similar those elsewhere successful Europe, the U.S. and beyond, saw a large stock of COVID-19 deaths, and prosecutors successful dozens of jurisdictions person opened transgression investigations into whether the deaths could person been prevented.

Italy was the archetypal state successful the West to beryllium deed by the outbreak and soon recovered itself critically abbreviated of protective equipment, look masks and infirmary beds, peculiarly successful the hardest-hit Lombardy region. During the archetypal question of contagion, galore residents of elder attraction facilities successful Lombardy weren’t adjacent taken to the infirmary due to the fact that determination was nary country for them.

In summation to the precocious toll connected nursing location residents, Amnesty said immoderate employees who complained astir deficiency of protective instrumentality oregon raised different concerns astir unsafe moving conditions successful the facilities were subjected to disciplinary proceedings.

One lawsuit cited by Amnesty acrophobic the suspension of Pietro La Grassa, a national typical astatine Milan’s Pio Albergo Trivulzio nursing home, Italy’s largest.

Italian prosecutors opened a transgression probe into the Trivulzio location aft La Grassa and a fistful of doctors and employees raised alarm astir precocious numbers of deaths aboriginal connected successful the outbreak. Some alleged that managers had told them not to deterioration masks for fearfulness of spooking residents, a complaint absorption denied.

Milan prosecutors precocious decided to adjacent their Trivulzio probe without filing immoderate charges, Italian quality bureau ANSA reported Oct. 18. La Grassa was ordered to beryllium reinstated successful his occupation by a Milan tribunal successful December 2020.

Amnesty’s Italy bureau issued a study past twelvemonth entitled “Abandoned,” alleging Italian authorities violated the quality rights of nursing location residents successful 3 of the hardest-hit regions, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, by failing to support their close to beingness and health.

The wide decease toll among residents of Italian elder attraction facilities isn’t known, since residents weren’t tested aboriginal connected successful the outbreak and suspected COVID-19 deaths don’t diagnostic into Italy’s authoritative count. The nationalist Superior Institute of Health recovered that astatine slightest 9,154 radical died successful nursing homes from February-May 2020, but that survey was based connected partial responses to a voluntary survey of a 4th of Italy’s estimated 4,600 nursing homes.

Amnesty’s telephone for a parliamentary enquiry follows a determination by lawmakers successful July to greatly bounds the scope of a parliamentary committee of inquest into the pandemic to simply look into the events anterior to Jan. 30, 2020, erstwhile the authorities declared a authorities of exigency and suspended flights to and from China. As a result, the Italian enquiry won’t see the existent outbreak successful Italy oregon however it was handled here, since the archetypal locally transmitted lawsuit was lone confirmed successful bluish Lombardy successful precocious February.

Just past week, relatives of victims launched an online petition for Parliament to instrumentality to the archetypal scope of an enquiry into the causes of the outbreak present and the actions taken by the authorities and World Health Organization to effort to bounds it.

Aside from that, the user rights radical Codacons has been gathering information connected behalf of relatives of radical who died successful elder attraction homes and has turned the accusation implicit to prosecutors. If those cases ever scope trial, the relatives could articulation the prosecution arsenic injured parties successful the civilian information of the case.

Separately, 1 class-action suit against the government, wellness ministry and Lombardy region, filed connected behalf of immoderate 500 relatives of victims, has begun successful Rome’s civilian tribunal. The lone different large transgression probe is being handled by prosecutors successful hard-hit Bergamo state looking into Italy’s preparedness and whether a delayed lockdown determination helped substance the contagion.