On 9 March 2020, the government of Italy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a national lockdown or quarantine, restricting the movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances, in response to the growing pandemic of COVID-19 in the country. Additional lockdown restrictions mandated the temporary closure of non-essential shops and businesses. This followed restrictions announced on the previous day which affected sixteen million people in the whole region of Lombardy and fourteen largely-neighbouring provinces in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Piedmont and Marche, and prior to that, a smaller-scale lockdown of ten municipalities in the province of Lodi and one in the province of Padua that had begun in late February.
The lockdown measures, despite being widely approved by public opinion polls, were also described as the largest suppression of constitutional rights in the history of the republic. Nevertheless, Article 16 of the Constitution states that travel restrictions may be established by law for reasons of health or security.
Italy was the first country to enact a COVID-19 lockdown nationwide; many countries would introduce similar measures in subsequent months as the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally.
Background
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Italian government confirmed the country's first cases of the disease on 30 January 2020, when the virus was detected in two Chinese tourists visiting Italy. A third case was confirmed on 7 February, with the patient being an Italian man evacuated from Wuhan. The number of confirmed cases increased on 21 February, when sixteen people in Lombardy and Veneto were confirmed to be infected. Following the first two deaths of people with the virus, several towns in Lombardy were placed on lockdown due to the large number of infected patients in the region.
History
Initial lockdowns
The first lockdown began around 21 February 2020, covering ten municipalities of the province of Lodi in Lombardy and one in the province of Padua in Veneto, and affecting around 50,000 people. In the most affected town of Codogno (pop. 16,000), police cars blocked roads into and out of the quarantined area and erected barriers. The quarantined "red zone" (zona rossa) was initially enforced by police and Carabinieri, and by 27 February it was reported that 400 policemen were enforcing it with 35 checkpoints. The lockdown was initially meant to last until 6 March. While residents were permitted to leave their homes with supplies such as food and medicine being allowed to enter, attending school or going to workplaces was not allowed, and public gatherings were prohibited. Train services also bypassed the region.
Expansion to northern provinces
Early on Sunday 8 March 2020, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the expansion of the quarantine zone to cover much of northern Italy, affecting over sixteen million people, restricting travel from, to or within the affected areas, banning funerals and cultural events, and requiring people to keep at least one metre of distance from one another in public locations such as restaurants, churches and supermarkets. Conte later clarified in a press conference that the decree was not an "absolute ban", and that people would still be able to use trains and planes to and from the region for "proven work needs, emergencies, or health reasons". Additionally, tourists from outside were still permitted to leave the area.
Restaurants and cafes were permitted to open, but operations were limited to between 6:00 and 18:00, while many other public locations such as gyms, nightclubs, museums and swimming pools were closed altogether. Businesses were ordered to implement "smart working processes" to permit their employees to work from home. The decree, in effect until 3 April, additionally cancelled any leave for medical workers, and allowed the government to impose fines or up to three months' jail for people caught leaving or entering the affected zone without permission. The decree also implemented restrictions on public gatherings elsewhere across Italy. With this decree, the initial "Red Zone" was also abolished (though the municipalities were still within the quarantined area).
The lockdown measures implemented by Italy was considered the most radical measure implemented against the outbreak outside of the lockdown measures implemented in China. At the time of the decree, over 5,800 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in Italy, with 233 dead. A draft of the decree had been leaked to the media late on Saturday night before it went into effect and was published by Corriere della Sera, resulting in panic within the to-be-quarantined areas and prompting reactions from politicians in the region. La Repubblica reported that hundreds of people in Milan rushed out to leave the city on the last trains on Saturday night, as a part of a rush in general to leave the expanded red zone. La Repubblica later reported that this was an exaggeration and that, through an analysis of telephone cells, less than 1,000 people had left Milan for the southern regions during 7 March; by comparison, on 23 February, about 9,000 people left Milan for the south. However, within hours of the decree being signed, media outlets reported that relatively little had changed, with trains and planes still operating to and from the region, and restaurants and cafes operating normally. The BBC reported that some flights to Milan continued on 8 March, though several were cancelled. New guidelines for the coronavirus had assigned the responsibility of deciding whether to suspend flights to local judiciaries.
The locked down area, as of 8 March 2020, covered the entirety of the region of Lombardy, in addition to fourteen provinces in Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Marche. This area included the cities of Milan and Venice, and comprises three separate areas (around Lombardy, around Venice, and another zone surrounding San Marino). The affected area is populated by over sixteen million people, roughly a quarter of the Italian population. Quarantines covered an area of approximately 56,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi).
Nationwide expansion
On the evening of 9 March, the quarantine measures were expanded to the entire country, coming into effect the next day. In a televised address, Conte explained that the moves would restrict travel to that necessary for work, and family emergencies, and that all sporting events would be cancelled. Italy was the first country to implement a national quarantine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conte announced on 11 March that the lockdown would be tightened, with all commercial and retail businesses except those providing essential services, like grocery stores, food stores, and pharmacies, closed down. On 19 March, with over 35,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,000 deaths from the disease, Conte stated that the lockdown would likely be extended past its initial deadline of 3 April.
Luigi Di Maio, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has said that the lockdown has been necessary for Italy. The Italian authorities established sanctions for those who do not obey the orders, even those who, having symptoms of the virus, expose themselves in public places, being considered a threat of intentional contagion.
On 21 March, Conte announced a further enlargement of the lockdown, by shutting down all non-necessary businesses and industries. This measure came after a rise in the number of cases and deaths in the previous days, and after multiple institutions – including trade unions, mayors, and regional presidents – asked for a generalised shutdown of the Italian production system. On 22 March, Lombardy strengthened its measures, banning all outdoor physical activity and the use of vending machines.
On 1 April, Minister of Health Roberto Speranza announced the extension of the lockdown until 13 April.
On 10 April, the lockdown was extended until 3 May, and starting from 14 April stationery shops, bookshops and children clothing's shops will be allowed to open.
On 26 April, the Prime Minister announced the so-called "Phase 2", that would start from 4 May. Movements across regions were still forbidden, while the ones between municipalities were allowed only for work and health reasons as well as for visit relatives. Moreover, he allowed the re-opening of closed factories, but schools, bars, restaurants and barbers were still closed.
Subsequent restrictions (late 2020–2021)
Following a second wave of infections beginning in October 2020, the Italian government reintroduced stricter restrictions. On 13 October 2020, the government banned public gatherings and gave regions the power to tighten but not ease containment measures. On 25 October, Prime Minister Conte introduced new restrictions closing gyms, swimming pools, theatres and cinemas, and requiring bars and restaurants to close by 6pm. In November 2020, Italy introduced a colour-coded tier system; white, yellow, orange and red zones, with different restrictions based on infection rates and healthcare capacity. A national red zone with travel bans between regions and municipalities was established for the Christmas 2020 and Easter 2021 holidays. Most COVID-19 restrictions were gradually lifted through 2022, with the majority abolished on 1 June 2022.
Impact
Economy
The New York Times Rome bureau chief Jason Horowitz referred to the expanded lockdown as "sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term", with Milan considered the country's economic capital while Venice was one of its most important tourist destinations. The regions of Lombardy and Veneto alone produced a third of the Italian gross domestic product.
Prior to the quarantine's expansion, the Italian economy was already forecast to enter a recession due to the impact of the outbreak, with the tourism and luxury goods sector being particularly hard-hit by a reduction of travel. The impact of the wider quarantine is predicted to bring the European economy as a whole into a recession, and will disrupt supply chains to, for example, German car manufacturers like Volkswagen. Prior to the quarantine, Scope Ratings GmbH estimated on 2 March an annual contraction in Italian GDP in 2020, with the budget deficit rising past 2.5% of GDP. The Berenberg Bank revised its forecast for the Italian economic growth in 2020 from -0.3% before the lockdown to -1.2%. An economist at London-based consultancy Capital Economics estimated Italy's 2020 GDP decline to be 2 percent after the national lockdown, assuming that the lockdown is lifted on schedule. Reuters reported on 20 March that Ministry of Economy and Finance was expecting a 3% GDP contraction in 2020, assuming the lockdown would be loosened by the end of April. On 1 April, Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri stated that a 6% GDP contraction for 2020 was "realistic".
The FTSE MIB, Italy's benchmark stock index, fell 11 percent on 9 March when the market reopened, dubbed "Black Monday". Particularly hard-hit sectors due to the lockdown are the hospitality, food service, retail, art, entertainment and transport sectors, altogether making up around 23 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Tourism, another 6 percent, is also forecasted to experience a crisis, with normally crowded destinations being empty.
On 20 July 2022, Domino's Pizza's Italian franchise EPizza SpA closed all its 29 stores, terminating Domino's Italian operations. EPizza SpA had earlier filed for bankruptcy in April 2022 following two years of declining revenue caused by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and competition from local pizza chains and restaurants, which began using food deliver app services.
Environment
During the lockdowns in early 2020, emissions of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, fell drastically in northern Italy, most likely as a result of fewer diesel engines in operation.
Effectiveness
The effects on social movement of such measures were visible. A reduction of 50% of movement between provinces and of 19% of personal interactions comparing 22 February and 10 March was calculated by the company Cuebiq and the University of Turin using data from mobile phone companies. On 17 March, the vice-president of Lombardy Fabrizio Sala reported a level of an overall 60% decrease of social mobility in the region, comparing the situation of 16 March to 20 February, although such level was not considered sufficient.
About 700,000 citizens were stopped and checked between 11 and 17 March alone, of which 43,000 were decided to have violated the quarantine, including at least two priests who were officiating funeral services (which were banned by the decree).
The comparison of the province of Lodi (where a rigid lockdown was imposed in certain areas starting on 24 February) and the province of Bergamo (where it started later on 9 March) on 17 March showed that the first one recovered faster and the exponential increase of cases stopped.