Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he will be questioned by prosecutors on Friday over the way the coronavirus outbreak was handled in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, one of the areas worst hit by the epidemic. 

"I am not at all worried," Conte told reporters outside the his office in Rome. "We will speak on Friday and I will pass on all the facts I am aware of," he said, adding that he was not under investigation himself.

The prosecutors want to know why those badly hit areas around Bergamo were not closed down early in the outbreak, and they have already questioned the regional governor of Lombardy, which includes Bergamo, and Lombardy's health chief. 

It came after 50 relatives of COVID-19 victims in Italy filed complaints on Wednesday at the prosecutors' office in Bergamo over the handling of the pandemic, the first such legal group action in the country.

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Prosecutors from Bergamo have launched an investigation into the crisis. They are looking in particular at why a red zone was not enforced in February around the towns of Nembro and Alzano. Regional officials and the government blame each other for the failure.  

Italy was the first European country to be ravaged by the virus. The government imposed the country's first red zone, around the town of Codogno, 24 hours after doctors discovered a patient positive with COVID-19. It went on to shut down 10 other towns, and then large areas of the north, before imposing a nationwide lockdown.  

"The things I have to say to the prosecutor, I will say to the prosecutor – I don't want to anticipate," Conte said. "All investigations are welcome. The citizens have the right to know and we have the right to reply." 

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The team, lead by Chief Prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota, has already questioned senior officials in the Lombardy region, who say it was up to Rome to decide whether certain areas should be shut.  

The region's health minister, Giulio Gallera, has said it was clear from February 23 that there were a lot of cases in the areas around Nembro and Alzano, towns in the Bergamo Province. But the government failed to act, he said.  

Conte replied that "if Lombardy had wanted, it could have made Alzano and Nembro red zones."  

Codogno was closed on February 21. Lombardy and 14 provinces in the neighboring regions of Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna followed on March 8, and the whole of Italy shut down two days later.  

But a scientific committee advising the government and the national health institute had warned in early March 3 that the towns should be locked down, according to the Corriere della Sera.  

Nevertheless, the latest poll released Ipsos last Saturday found that Conte's support rate had climbed to a record high of 63 percent again, making him among Italy's most popular prime ministers during the peace era. 

(With input from AFP, Reuters)