Probe into Italy virus response looks into preparedness plan

FILE - In this June 12, 2020 file photo, lead prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota talks with reporters as the leaves Palazzo Chigi premier's office, in Rome. Prosecutors from northern Italy have traveled to Rome again Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, to question the health minister and others as part of their broadening investigation into whether to lay any criminal blame for Italy’s horrific coronavirus toll. Back in June, Bergamo prosecutors questioned Premier Giuseppe Conte, Health Minister Roberto Speranza and other top officials about the delayed lockdown in two Bergamo towns where infections were reported in the early days of Italy’s outbreak. Bergamo subsequently became the Italy’s COVID-19 epicenter, the first in the West, registering a 571% excess mortality rate in March compared to the average of the previous five years. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2020 file photo, military trucks moving coffins of deceased people line up on the highway next to Ponte Oglio, near Bergamo, one of the areas worst hit by the coronavirus infection, on their way from Bergamo cemetery to a crematory in some other location as the local crematory exceeded its maximum capacity. Prosecutors from northern Italy have traveled to Rome Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, to question the health minister and others as part of their broadening investigation into whether to lay any criminal blame for Italy’s horrific coronavirus toll. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)