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Italian PM Draghi cancels Africa trip after positive Covid test

The Italian premier has tested positive for coronavirus but is currently asymptomatic, his office said on Monday.

Published: 18 April 2022 14:21 CEST

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi has tested positive for Covid-19 but is asymptomatic, his office said on Monday.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi has tested positive for Covid-19 but is asymptomatic, his office said on Monday. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP.

Draghi had been due to visit oil-rich Angola and the Republic of Congo this week with a view to switching Italy’s energy supplies away from Russia.

That trip has now been cancelled as a result of the prime minister’s Covid-positive status, his office confirmed.

Instead, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio and Minister for Ecological Transition will represent the country in diplomatic talks with the African nations.

READ ALSO: ‘Peace or air conditioning?’ Italy vows to follow EU on Russian gas embargo

The pair will fly to Luanda on Wednesday and Brazzaville on Thursday to conduct negotiations on Italy’s behalf.

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Italy’s ex-PM and health minister cleared in Covid investigation

Italy’s former prime minister Giuseppe Conte and former health minister Roberto Speranza were cleared on Wednesday in an investigation into alleged mismanagement of the first phase of the Covid pandemic.

Prosecutors in Bergamo, the Lombardy province worst hit by the first wave of infections in early 2020, had investigated Conte and Speranza on suspicion of “aggravated culpable epidemic” and manslaughter over accusations that the government’s conduct at the start of the coronavirus pandemic had been “improper”.

Conte, now president of the populist Five Star movement, was prime minister from 2018 to 2021 and oversaw the initial measures taken to halt the spread of what would become a global pandemic.

At the time, many viewed Italy’s ‘red zone’ lockdown measures as draconian – but relatives of those killed in the first wave say restrictions did not go far enough to prevent deaths.

The province of Bergamo recorded 6,000 excess deaths during the first wave, and rights groups representing families of the victims claim some 4,000 could have been prevented if the areas had been immediately quarantined.

Italian police enforce a ‘red zone’ on February 23rd, 2020 at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno following the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

Investigating magistrates had suspected Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed cases were spreading rapidly in Bergamo and the surrounding region.

They noted that in early March 2020 the government did not create a red zone in two areas hit hardest by the outbreak, Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, even though security forces were ready to isolate the zone from the rest of the country.

Red zones had already been declared in late February for around a dozen nearby municipalities, including Codogno, the town where the initial Covid case was reportedly found.

But on Wednesday both were cleared of culpability as the court in Brescia dismissed the case, ruling that the “accusations against the pair are baseless”.

READ ALSO: Anti-vaxxer assaults Covid-era Italian PM Conte at rally

“There is no evidence of the connection between the dead and the failure to extend the red zone,” the court said.

“Speranza has adopted the health measures proposed to him by experts – measures which, moreover, at European level, have been among the most restrictive,” wrote the judges. “The crime of culpable epidemic for improper omissive conduct is therefore unrealistic.”

Speranza wrote on Facebook that he was “very relieved” by the ruling.

“Personally, I did everything possible during those terrible days to protect the health of Italians.”

But relatives of Covid victims in Bergamo said the ruling was a “slap in the face for all of us”.

Members of the Sereni e Sempre Uniti group for relatives of Covid victims added that they were “disappointed and bitter” and plan to take the issue to the civil courts.

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