"We don't want revenge, we want justice," said Stefano Fusco, 31, who created a group on Facebook to reach out to others in similar situations after his grandfather died of the virus in a care home in March. Italy’s official death toll – which many experts believe is underestimated – is now over 34,000.

The complaints were filed at the prosecutors' office in the city of Bergamo, in Lombardy, northern Italy, the area worst hit by the pandemic, "because it has become the symbol of this tragedy, though they come from across the country," Fusco said.