Italy on Monday marks its national day of remembrance for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

March 18 was chosen as the day of memory because it was on that day in 2020 that the most tragic and emblematic image of the first COVID wave was recorded: convoys of army trucks taking coffins away from an overloaded Bergamo, the worst-hit northern city.

It is estimated that close to 200,000 deaths in Italy were linked to the coronavirus.

President Sergio Mattarella said the pandemic showed how a "coordinated response at a global level" was necessary to tackle the challenges humanity faces and stressed the importance of "recent research discoveries in which the European Union was the protagonist".

He added that the coordinated efforts of "institutions at every level" has made it possible to "contain an intangible enemy in the name of a global rebirth".