Doctors and patients recall most difficult momments of the pandemic
Italy marks Remembrance Day to commemorate the victims of the Coronavirus pandemic on March 18th.** On the same day, 5 years ago, military trucks carried the coffins of some victims from the cemetery in Bergamo to other cities for cremation.
The image spread worldwide, conveying the gravity of what was happening in the region. Italy recorded over 196,000 deaths becoming the first Western country to be hit by the pandemic, which caused tens of millions of deaths worldwide.
Today, those who survived the pandemic feel blessed as they recall their darkest memories. Sergio Monticelli is among them. He is more thankful than ever to the doctors who saved his life at San Camillo Hospital in Rome five years ago.
"I feel so emotional, as you can tell from my voice. Seeing Dr. Magliacani and the whole team, knowing that I stayed here and then returned home. Others weren't as fortunate," he told Euronews right after entering the hospital.
Sergio has vivid memories of the day that changed everything for him. "As I was receiving treatment, one of the doctors told me I looked swollen," he recalled. "It was a sign that I had less oxygen, and by acting quickly, they saved my life."
Dr. Magliacani, who was part of the team that cared for Sergio, compares the pandemic to a monster. "The most difficult part was seeing patients in pain," he told Euronews. "We saw people dying, begging for their hands to be held."
But not everyone has shown gratitude for their work, Dr. Magliacani noted. Unlike cancer survivors, he explained, many former Covid-19 patients prefer to put the experience behind them. "Many, including some doctors, are in denial about the reality we faced," he said. "Society and institutions seem to have forgotten how crucial our role was."
A court in Belarus has jailed a Japanese man for seven years for espionage after he was convicted of working on behalf of Japan's intelligence service.
Masatoshi Nakanishi, who has been in custody in Belarus since his arrest in July, was accused of taking thousands of photos of military and civilian facilities in the Belarusian-Ukrainian border area from 2018 to 2024 and sharing them with Japanese intelligence.
The Minsk City Court issued the sentence after a two-month trial that was held behind closed doors. Nakanishi was convicted of cooperating with a "special service, security and intelligence agency of a foreign state, involving actions knowingly aimed at harming the national security" of Belarus, the office of the country's prosecutor general said.
He was ordered to pay a fine equivalent to around €6,130. Belarusian authorities had rejected a request by the Japanese embassy in Belarus to attend the proceedings.
The embassy told Japanese media outlet NHK that Tokyo had been in contact with Minsk to demand Nakanishi's immediate release.
Nakanishi had lived in Gomel, Belarus' second-largest city, since 2018. According to Belarusian state-controlled media, he taught Japanese at a local university.
A 15-minute programme focusing on Nakanishi's alleged espionage entitled The Failure of a Samurai from Tokyo aired on state television last September. Japanese authorities criticised the programme at the time, saying that it infringed on Nakanishi's rights.
Belarus' Viasna Human Rights Centre, an NGO, declared Nakanishi a political prisoner. The group says that Belarus now has more than 1,200 political prisoners in custody, among them 36 foreign citizens.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya criticised the sentencing.
"Like other political prisoners, he is being dehumanised by regime propaganda," she wrote in a post on X on Monday.
Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over 30 years while relying on subsidies and support from Russia, allowed the Russian military to use his country's territory to send troops into neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.
Lukashenko also has allowed Russia to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.
Japan has placed sanctions on Russia and Belarus over Moscow's war in Ukraine.
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