Italy's parliament has designated 18 March as National Day in Memory of covid-19 victims, with the unanimous approval of the decision marked by a minute's silence in the chamber on 23 July.

The date for the annual commemoration was not chosen randomly: it was the day that Italy - and the world - woke up to images of a convoy of military trucks full of coffins driving out of Bergamo whose cemetery and crematorium could no longer cope with the amount of casualties.