Coronavirus: will a mandatory lockdown be in the US’ future?

As late as last week, US officials confronting the coronavirus outbreak were dismissing the idea that the country might even consider so drastic an option as to shut down entire cities — the way China did.

That was then. In just a few days, events have toppled conventional wisdom: infections in the US soared, surging in the last 10 days to reach more than 3,600 cases nationwide. US equities, meanwhile, had a week of sell-offs and entered a bear market, culminating Monday with a drop of 2,999 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, its biggest point loss ever.

Covid-19, now a global pandemic, is challenging US governmental leaders to weigh whether to set aside some core values of free societies and follow China’s example by forcibly quarantining entire cities.

All but one of the nation’s 50 states have confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 70 people have died in little more than two weeks. Governors of states and mayors of cities have announced a slew of actions to get people to sharply limit their activities – so far, still voluntarily.

Over the weekend, federal, state and local leaders fell short of calling for mandatory restrictions on citizens’ movements. Instead they closed schools, shut down restaurants, bars and everything from movie theatres to gyms, while urging people to stay home.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s public school system – the nation’s largest, with 1.1 million students – would close until at least April 20, and that the city would also close its bars and restaurants, except for delivery and pickup services, for an indefinite period.

While hugely disruptive, the latest measures were still “far different from what was done in Wuhan with a mandatory quarantine and total shutdown,” said Samuel Brannen, who leads the Risk and Foresight Group at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.