From Australia to India and the Philippines, are coronavirus lockdowns working?
- The state of Victoria has one of the world’s harshest restrictions on movement, while citizens in European capitals are patronising bars and restaurants
- While lockdowns saved lives, they also inflicted huge social and economic costs – and experts say we will not know the full impact, good or bad, for decades
In European capitals, citizens patronise bars and restaurants even as daily infections run into the thousands, after trading lockdowns for mask-wearing and limits on large gatherings. And at the same time Manila is opening up despite rising cases, Jakarta is partially shutting down.
Nearly nine months after Chinese authorities shut down Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the pandemic, policymakers around the world are divided on the continuing viability of lockdowns, which have been credited with saving lives but have also inflicted enormous social and economic costs.
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New Zealand orders Auckland back in lockdown after first local Covid-19 cases in 102 days
According to Gavi, the vaccine alliance, another study suggests that a severe lockdown would ideally start no later than two weeks after the outbreak began, gradually easing off to cover 60 per cent of the population after a month, and 20 per cent of the population after 3 months.
However, the timing of lockdowns can be tricky, and can have significant effects on their effectiveness. Gavi also notes that low and middle-income countries struggled to implement lockdowns, particularly those with a large informal sector, while wealthier countries were more likely to have social or economic safety nets.