ROME (AP) — Rome prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to effectively close an investigation into Italian and U.N. health officials over Italy’s 2020 Covid-19 response without charges, on the grounds that no crimes were committed, a lawyer said. Already prosecutors had closed their case without filing charges against three of Italy’s past health ministers. Guerra had been the former head of the department of prevention in the Italian health ministry until 2017 and was a WHO envoy to Italy during the pandemic. De Vita said prosecutors determined the pandemic plan was in the process of being updated. He welcomed the decision to archive the case, saying it should have been closed two years ago as soon as Guerra provided documentation to prosecutors showing he had acted correctly.

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Persons: — Rome, Claudia Terracina, Paolo Ielo, Dr, Ranieri Guerra, Roberto De Vita, Francesco Zambon, Guerra, Vita Organizations: ROME, World Health Organization, WHO Locations: Europe, Bergamo, Italy