Today is the third National Day of healthcare, socio-sanitary, social assistance and volunteering staff: in remembrance of the approx 500 deaths among social and health professionals during the Covid pandemic and the approximately 474,000 infected are underway in Rome at the celebrations at the Pontifical University of San Tommaso D’Aquino. Promoted by the director Ferzan Ozpetek and the lyricist Mogol, the day was established with the Law of 13 November 2020 and the symbolic date of 20 February was chosen to remember the day when patient one was discovered in Codogno.
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“We are to honor the memory of those who are no longer with us and to share a special Day, because it celebrates a constitutional right, that of health, which draws its foundation from the Constitution”: these are the words of the message read by the president of the Federation of Orders of Nurses, Barbara Mangiacavallion behalf of all 11 federations present.
Schillaci: “Reforming Healthcare by putting the person at the centre” – “It is necessary to speed up the reorganization of public health, with the person at the center and with stronger territorial assistance”. As the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, speaking at the ceremony. “I consider it essential to implement all the necessary initiatives to protect the safety of health and social care personnel, in light of the episodes of physical and verbal aggression that are repeated with disconcerting frequency, in particular against women”, said the minister.
“Today is a special day – added Schillaci -: the first case of Covid-19 in Italy was discovered on February 20 three years ago, at the Civic Hospital of Codogno. It was the moment of fear, the beginning of the pandemic which saw health and social care professionals at the forefront, social assistance personnel together with the world of volunteering grappling with a terrible, unknown enemy, which unfortunately also caused many losses among women and men engaged in fighting what has been defined as a real war. Women and men who have been able to demonstrate all their professionalism and dedication to the point of exhaustion, to the point of sacrificing their lives, guaranteeing the stability of our national health service”.
“Vaccinations must continue. Even if it is no longer at the level of two or three years ago, the pandemic is still there,” said the vice president of the Senate Maurice Gasparri.
For the day of remembrance, in the symbolic places of the pandemic, the national president of the Red Cross will first stop in Vo’ Euganeo, the town in the province of Padua where the first victim of the Coronavirus was registered on 21 February, will then go to Calvisano, in the province of Brescia, where in March Fausto Bertuzzi was the first Red Cross volunteer to die, aged 49, and will deliver the gold medal in memory to his family members as well as inaugurating the new CRI committee of Garda-Bresciano, based in Desenzano del Garda. The third stage will be in Codogno, in the Lodi area. Last stop in Milan to give recognition to the CRI volunteer Antonio Arosio, former president of the Lombardy Regional Committee. In Codogno, the actual remembrance ceremony will take place on February 21, a day ‘dedicated to the resilient community of Codogno and to the victims of Covid’ with the laying of a wreath at the memorial.
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