Table 1.

Time progression of containment strategies adopted by the Italian Government

January 30: first case in Italy (Chinese couple in Rome)

January 30: air traffic embargo for flights coming to Italy from any Chinese city, including the autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau

February 20: first case hospitalized in Codogno (Lombardy, northern Italy). Start of a local outbreak, with strict quarantine for 14 d starting from February 23

February 25: first 3 cases in Sicily

March 8: 7365 cases (91% in northern Italy). Northern Italy quarantined (16 million people)

March 12: 15 113 official cases in Italy (90.5% in northern Italy). The whole country is on lockdown, and a massive communication campaign starts

May 4: lockdown was stopped