On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared a health emergency of international concern after the first concentrations of people infected with COVID19 were diagnosed in China. The next day, the Italian government began to define initial containment measures, such as controlling people entering the country from China to prevent the spread of the infection in the country. From the second half of February, however, the number of Italian cases increased, especially in northern Italy. This prompted the government to announce the first restrictive measures in the so-called First Red Zone on February 21, including defined areas in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, the areas most affected by the infection.
