bologna's penitentiary. in total, fourteen prisoners died in the whole country. on 9 march, the government announced that all sporting events in italy would be cancelled until at least 3 april, but the ban did not include italian clubs or national teams participating in international competitions. in the evening, conte announced in a press conference that all measures previously applied only in the so-called "red zones" had been extended to the whole country, putting approximately 60 million people in lockdown. conte later proceeded to officially sign the new executive decree. queue in front of a supermarket after the introduction of social distancing rules on 11 march, the government allocated 25 billion euros for the emergency. in the evening, conte announced a tightening of the lockdown, with all commercial and retail businesses except those providing essential services, like grocery shops and pharmacies, closed down. he also appointed domenico arcuri as delegated commissioner for the emergency. arcuri will cooperate with commissioner angelo borrelli with the aim of strengthening the distribution of intensive care equipment. on 16 march 2020, the italian government introduced the cura italia emergency package, valued at €25 billion and accounting for 1.1% of the gdp. the package was the earliest financial response to the covid-19 outbreak and aimed at supporting the italian health care system, as well as its citizens and businesses. it included "funds to strengthen the italian health care system and civil protection (€3.2 billion); measures to preserve jobs and support income of laid-off workers and self-employed (€10.3 billion); other measures to support businesses, including tax deferrals and postponement of utility bill payments in most affected municipalities (€6.4 billion); as well as measures to support credit supply (€5.1 billion)." on 19 march, the army was deployed to the city of bergamo, the worst hit italian city by covid-19, as the local authorities can no longer process the number of dead residents. the city's mayor giorgio gori said the true number of dead could be much higher than reported. army trucks transported bodies to crematoriums in several other cities, as cemeteries in the city were full. on the following day, the army was called in to assist the police forces in enforcing the lockdown. on 20 march, the ministry of health ordered tighter regulations on free movement. the new measures banned open-air sports and running, except individually and in close proximity of one's residence. parks, playgrounds, and public green were closed down. furthermore, movement across the country was further restricted, by banning "any movement towards a residence different from the main one", including holiday homes, during weekends and holidays. on 21 march, conte announced further restrictions within the nationwide lockdown, by halting all non-essential production, industries and businesses in italy, following the rise in the number of new cases and deaths in the previous days. this measure had also been strongly asked for by multiple institutions, including trade unions, mayors, and regional presidents, as well as medical professionals, but was initially opposed by the industrialists. on 24 march, in a live-streamed press conference, conte announced a new decree approved by the council of ministers. the decree imposed higher fines for the violation of the restrictive measures, and regulation of the relationship between government and parliament during the emergency. it included also the possibility of reducing or suspending public and private transport, and gave the regional governments power to impose additional restrictive regulations in their regions for a maximum of seven days before being confirmed by national decree. on 1 april, the government extended the period of lockdown until 13 april, with health minister speranza saying that the restrictive measures had begun to yield the first positive results. people in pavia wearing protective masks on 6 april, the government announced a new economic stimulus plan, consisting of €200 billion of state-guaranteed loans to companies and additional €200 billion of guarantees to support exports. on 7 april, after more than a month of suspension, the italian basketball federation officially ended the 2019–20 lba season, without assigning the title. on 8 april, a government's decree closed all italian ports until 31 july, stating that they do not ensure the necessary requirements for the classification and definition of "safe place", established by the hamburg rules on maritime search and rescue." on 10 april, conte announced the prolongation of the lockdown until 3 may, as well as the reopening of some businesses like bookshops and forestry. on 26 april, the prime minister announced a starter plan for the so-called "phase 2", that would start from 4 may. movements across regions would still be forbidden, while the ones between municipalities would be allowed only for work and health reasons, as well as for visits to relatives. the plan allowed the re-opening of manufacturing industries and construction sites, however schools, bars, restaurants and hairdressers would stay closed. on 13 may, education minister lucia azzolina announced schools would remain closed until september. on 16 may, conte announced the government plan for the easing of restrictions. starting from 18 may most businesses could reopen, and free movement was granted to all citizens within their region; movement across regions was still banned for non-essential motives. furthermore, on 25 may swimming pools and gyms could also reopen, and on 15 june theatres and cinemas. on 3 june, free movement within the whole national territory was restored, de facto ending the lockdown started in march. penalties for breaching isolation were increased with fines from €500 to €5,000 and imprisonment of up to 18 months. containment measures on the second wave starting from july 2020, many countries in europe, including italy, witnessed a new rise in detected covid-19 cases. on 7 october, the parliament postponed the end of the state of emergency to 31 january 2021, and prime minister conte imposed the use of protection mask outdoors. on 13 october 2020, the italian government reintroduced stricter rules to limit the spread of covid-19. demonstrations and gatherings of people were strictly forbidden. regions and municipalities were given the power to only tighten, but not release, containment measures. italian regions and the central government began reinforcing hospitals to accommodate more sick and infected with covid-19. all hospital facilities were upgraded and expanded with a larger capacity for beds and intensive units than in march 2020. the italian government also purchased about 19 million doses of flu vaccine, to be distributed to the population. tracking applications, monitoring systems with the help of surveillance drones and predictive systems are used to understand the progress of the epidemic. if containment fails, the possible cases of infections will rise to about one million people and about 80,000 will die before the end of the pandemic, but the release of the covid-19 vaccine is imminent and can change this dramatic projection. on 25 october, conte introduced new restrictions, imposing the closing of gyms, swimming pools, theatres and cinemas, as well as the closing of bars and restaurants by 6 pm. variants of the virus and third wave predictive systems have proven reliable and confirmed the increase in cases and deaths since october 2020. the start of the vaccination campaign on 27 december 2020 did not limit the spread of the virus in the population that is still vulnerable, but safeguarded doctors and health professionals and partly the elderly and immuno-depressed patients. however, the appearance of numerous variants of the more lethal virus such as the english one, and those still to be assessed as dangerous such as the south african and brazilian or amazonian ones together with a slowdown in the vaccination campaign due to a poor supply of vaccines will lead to a worsening of the prospects for containing the virus. and an increase of another 40,000 deaths by spring 2021. the delta variant in june 2021, the covid-19 delta variant became predominant. the delta variant is more contagious and is equally risky for those who have not had the covid-19 vaccine or who have only taken the first dose. however, currently available data do not show an increase in the lethality rate. unfortunately, july 2021 confirms an increase in infections. on july 16, 2021, the cases in italy since the beginning of the epidemic are 4,281,214, the deaths 127,851. the discharged and healed are instead 4,110,649, with an increase of 1,070 compared to 15 july 2021. the current positives are 42,714, up 1,814 in the last 24 hours. people in home isolation are 41,465 (+1,807). on summer 2021, under monitoring in italy, there is another variant beyond the delta, the epsilon variant that was first identified in california, in the united states, in early 2021. the epsilon variant can make sick those who are vaccinated or already cured of the covid-19. local measures on 15 march, president of campania vincenzo de luca imposed a strict quarantine on ariano irpino, in the province of avellino, and four other municipalities in the province of salerno, atena lucana, caggiano, polla, and sala consilina. on 16 march, president of emilia-romagna stefano bonaccini imposed a strengthened quarantine on the municipality of medicina, near bologna, since it had developed an intense outbreak. people were not allowed to enter or exit the town for any reason. in early april, lombardy and tuscany made it compulsory for all residents to wear a face mask when leaving their home. due to the spike in covid-19 cases in august, italy's health minister, roberto speranza announced the closure of nightclubs in some parts of the country and made masks mandatory between 6 pm and 6 am, in crowded areas and at social gatherings. the restrictions came into effect on 17 august 2020. on 15 october 2020, the president of campania de luca, closed all schools and universities until 30 october 2020. on 23 october, de luca announced a regional lockdown, imposing restrictions to all not essential movements as well as a curfew. in the night, riots and clashes happened in the streets of naples to protest against the lockdown. screening and testing policies the strategy of mass-testing asymptomatic carriers was proven to be successful in stopping the spread of the virus in one italian town. this strategy in italy was supported by the region of veneto. vaccination campaign further information: covid-19 vaccination campaign in italy and covid-19 vaccine a covid-19 vaccination centre near varese, lombardy the vaccination campaign began on 27 december 2020, when italy received 9,750 doses of the pfizer–biontech vaccine. these doses were entirely used in the following days to vaccinate part of the medical and health personnel of hospitals. as a member of the eu, italy would receive vaccine doses together with the other eu countries in a coordinated task managed by the european commission. the first italian region to start with vaccinations was lazio, in the spallanzani hospital in rome. on 6 january 2021, the european medicines agency (ema) gave the green light to the moderna vaccine. on 1 may 2021, italy reached 20 million vaccinated with a single dose and 6 million with double dose. on 22 may 2021, italy reached 30 million vaccinated with a single dose and 9.9 million with double dose. as of 3 september 2021, italy has administered a total of 78,798,299 covid vaccine doses. given that every person requires 2 doses of the covid vaccine for full efficiency, the total number that has been administered is enough to cover approximately 65.1% of the country's population. in august 2021, hackers blocked an italian booking system for vaccinations. vaccine hesitancy main article: vaccine hesitancy the new york times reported that bolzano had the highest rate of covid infection due to people there relying on herbal remedies instead of vaccination. lifting lockdown in june 2021, during the vaccination campaign, the government lifted some lockdown measures, such as mandatory masks. "green pass" and vaccination mandate to contain the spread of new variants, in august 2021 the government extended the requirement of the eu digital covid certificate, also known as "green pass", to the participation in sports events and music festivals, but also to the access to indoor places like bars, restaurants and gyms, as well as to long-distance public transportation. due to increased infections and the desire to prevent further lockdowns, the "green pass" was made mandatory for all employees in italy in september 2021. failure to produce a health vaccine certificate to their employer will result in suspended