Italian PM questioned for not locking down Bergamo province at start of virus outbreak

Premier Giuseppe Conte is being questioned by prosecutors investigating the lack of a lockdown of two towns in Lombardy's Bergamo province at the start of Italy's coronavirus outbreak. Doctors and virologists have said the two-week delay in quarantining Alzano and Nembro allowed the virus to spread in Bergamo, which saw a 571 percent increase in excess deaths in March compared to the average of the last five years.

Lead prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota arrived with a team of aides Friday morning at the premier's office in Rome, Palazzo Chigi. In addition to Conte, she is expected to question the health and interior ministers. Italy registered its first domestic case on February 21 in the Lombardy province of Lodi, and 10 towns in the province were immediately locked down to try to contain the spread.

Alzano and Nembro registered their first cases two days later, on February 23, but the government didn't quarantine them for two weeks until all of Lombardy was locked down March 7. Conte told La Stampa daily that he acted based on "science and conscience."