We are almost at the 12 month stage of lockdowns and rules and where has it taken us to? An even more severe crisis than we had in the first place.
It can be argued that it was the slackening off of restrictions that have created the current dire situation. But in terms of whether lock downs achieve their aim, I suppose we can only look to those countries that have imposed rigorous lock downs, such as New Zealand and Australia, to see if it works.
New Zealand imposed a draconian lock down at the outset and have more or less seen the virus off. Australia appears similar and virologists and epidemiologists here both warned strongly against relaxing the rules for Xmas. Seems they were right.
I don't profess to know much about the lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand but I was under the impression that it was more about stopping foreign travel at a very early stage , trying to isolate those found to have the virus and moving on from there. It was more an international lockdown than a national one which was made easier by their geographical position and make up. Wasn't a cruise liner full of foreign tourists also held responsible for spreading the virus there too?
I was in Sri Lanka in January and the day before we were due to fly home the first case of the virus had been detected in the airport. A Chinese lady on her way home was the unfortunate. It was weird arriving in the airport to find many, many people already wearing face masks so soon. It was also noted that temperature monitoring cameras were already operating at various strategic positions such as the top of escalators.
None of that happened here of course and far too many people were far too quick to jump on a plane somewhere as soon as was allowed with the governments blessing. Bit silly wasn't it! The warnings still weren't heeded though and there were those as recently as last month complaining when they were given just a days notice to get back home again before facing quarantine periods.
