On 9 March 2020, the government of Italy under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a national quarantine on the entire country, restricting the movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances, in response to the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. Later tightening of the lockdown ordered the temporary closure of non-essential shops and businesses. This followed an earlier restriction announced the previous day which affected sixteen million people and included the region of Lombardy and fourteen provinces in Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Marche, and further back a smaller-scale lockdown of eleven municipalities in the province of Lodi that had begun by late February.