COVID-19 lockdowns

Reception

A February 2021 review of 348 articles concluded there was acknowledgement of the importance of non-pharmaceutical interventions in controlling the spread of COVID-19. However, later research also acknowledges high societal costs, though in some circumstances less than the costs of allowing the pandemic to spread without mitigation.

Related to epidemiology

Epidemiological evidence supports generalized non-pharmaceutical interventions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

During the early stages of the pandemic in Europe and the United States, statistical modelling which advised that restrictions were helpful to prevent a large number of deaths were used as the basis for lockdowns. This includes an Imperial College projection, led by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson. Despite some criticisms, academics defended the Imperial projection as fundamentally sound, while admitting the code was "a buggy mess". Retrospective evaluation of lockdowns and computer modelling has verified that they have significantly contributed to reducing mortality and morbidity from COVID-19.

A notable opponent of lockdowns has included Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has frequently criticised the strategy. The Swedish government's approach has included minimal restrictions and has been controversial in part due to the relatively high death toll due to widespread transmission. However, the Swedish government began considering enacting a lockdown in early 2021.

While arguing in August 2020 for the need for further lockdowns in the United States, physicians Ranu Dhillon and Abraar Karan argued for "smarter lockdowns" that impose restrictions on areas with high levels of transmission, and to increase support to vulnerable populations in these locations to offset the economic costs.

A number of medical experts signed the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020 which called for "Focused Protection" on high risk groups and minimal restrictions on the general population to achieve herd immunity through COVID-19 infection. However, the majority of medical experts and the WHO have strongly criticised this proposed strategy for its lack of scientific basis and for being unethical. The declaration has also attracted controversy over its funding and the authenticity of its signatures.

Related to social impacts

The lockdowns had multiple effects on people's everyday lives. Some of these were direct effects, such as cancelling or postponing a social event, and others had indirect effects, such as losing a sense of identity. For example, teachers often derive meaning and a sense of life purpose from teaching, but the schools were closed, which caused many of them to feel disconnected from their identity as teachers. Many people also felt that they could not trust that the things (e.g., doorknobs) and people around them were safe. People also lost a sense of time, with the feelings of unpredictability developing into the opposite of the normal human ontological security. Instead of knowing what to do, what to trust, and what to expect in the future, people felt disconnected and at a loss. It also made people more aware of the pre-existing problems they were facing, such as abuse, addiction, and racism. The sociologist Ann Swidler compared the social changes to anomie, an absence of social norms that was first described at the end of the Industrial Revolution, as the prior, socially agreed-upon system of interpersonal connections, values, interdependence, and ideas about normal behaviour was set aside, and a new system had not yet emerged.

Some commentators have suggested that stay-at-home orders are unconstitutional, or that states' use of emergency powers to restrict freedom of assembly and movement are authoritarian and may result in long-term democratic backsliding. Centralization of power by political leadership in Hungary, Poland, China and Cambodia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been cited as examples. Many states restricted religious gatherings.

Some researchers have noted that COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have come with mental health costs, compounded by those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic itself. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses indicate that the COVID-19 lockdowns were associated with increased rates of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and a decline in health-related quality of life among children and adolescents, largely driven by school closures, social isolation, and disrupted routines. A rapid review published in the Lancet found that quarantine and lockdown measures were frequently associated with adverse psychological effects. Factors such as prolonged quarantine restrictions and inadequate information contributed to anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic also led to strained relationships, increased cyberbullying, and physical consequences like abuse, accidental poisonings, and foreign object injuries. Pandemic policies were associated with increased depressive symptoms, decreased physical activity, poorer nutrition, reduced emergency department visits, higher child mortality in Cameroon, a drop in immunizations in Pakistan, and an increase in physical child abuse trauma cases in one U.S. centre.

Due to their closure, educational institutions worldwide transitioned to online learning. Teachers and faculty had to learn new ways to engage with students while in a COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of online teaching tools are podcasts, videos, and virtual classrooms. Prolonged COVID-19 school closures and the ineffectiveness of remote learning, especially in low- and middle-income countries, exacerbated educational inequities, leading to substantial learning losses that could cost this generation of students $17 trillion in lifetime earnings. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education for 1.6 billion students at its peak, exacerbating the gender divide with disproportionately greater learning losses among girls and increased risks of child labour, gender-based violence, early marriage, and pregnancy in some countries. School closures during the pandemic resulted in significant learning loss, although some countries managed to limit the impact. The closures also led to a significant reduction in child abuse reporting, especially in Florida, where allegations of child abuse and neglect dropped by nearly one-third. This decline has been attributed to the limited access that teachers and school staff had to students, who typically serve as key reporters of child abuse.

UN Women warned in an April 2020 report that COVID-19 pandemic restrictions exacerbate gender inequalities and have led to an increase in domestic violence. Many women (and men), were being forced to 'lockdown' at home with their abusers at the same time that services to support survivors are being disrupted or made inaccessible. For instance, in France there was around a 30% spike in cases of violence against women since the lockdown in March 2020.

Telehealth had an important role to allow physicians not to miss the follow-up of patients with different chronic diseases and potentially helped to contain SARS-CoV-2 spreading among both patients and healthcare providers.

In late 2023, former Director of the National Institutes of Health (in the United States) Francis Collins went viral online amongst critics of the lockdown response when he discussed the lack of weight that public health authorities had given to the potential downsides of the lockdown measures when they were formulating the official response to COVID-19.

Related to economic impacts

Some economists supported increased government funding for mitigation efforts, even at the cost of tolerating a very large economic contraction. They agreed that lockdowns should continue until the threat of resurgence has declined, even when considering only the economic impact. There was a general agreement, at least in some economic circles, that "severe lockdowns — including closing non-essential businesses and strict limitations on people's movement — are likely to be better for the economy in the medium term than less aggressive measures".

Both the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have published statements noting the impact of the lockdowns on livelihoods and food security, and David Nabarro, WHO Special Envoy on COVID-19 stated in October 2020 that "lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer".

Protests

There have also been a number of protests worldwide in opposition to lockdowns, including in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand. The motivations for and sizes of these protests have varied. Some have been spurred by the economic and social impacts of lockdowns, but have also been associated with misinformation related to the pandemic, conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination. Protestors also argued that stay-at-home orders infringed on constitutional rights, constituted excessive government control and violated civil liberties.

Table of pandemic lockdowns

In the table, pandemic lockdowns are defined as the shutdown of parts of the economy, due to non-pharmaceutical anti-pandemic measures and enforceable by law like:

• Closing of schools and kindergartens
• Closing of non-essential shops (shops and stores apart from food, doctors and drug stores)
• Closing of non-essential production
• Cancellation of recreational venues and closing of public places
• Curfews
• Stay-at-home orders and total movement control

These measures caused the COVID-19 recession in 2020. The table does not contain:

• Measures with smaller economic impacts like:
  • border closures
  • social distancing measures and social movement restrictions
  • travel restrictions.
• Other non-pharmaceutical anti-pandemic measures like mandatory quarantines after travel, self quarantine and social distancing measures
• Any measures which are voluntary rather than enforceable by law

The pandemic resulted in the largest number of shutdowns worldwide at the same time in history. By 26 March, 1.7 billion people worldwide were under some form of lockdown, which increased to 3.9 billion people by the first week of April – more than half of the world's population. Lockdowns affected 93% of workers worldwide. 30% lived in nations with complete workplace closures, save for critical businesses, and 42% in countries with partial closures. Nearly 20% lived in nations with recommended but not compulsory workplace shutdown.

Major restrictions first began in China, with other countries in East Asia like Vietnam soon implementing widespread containment measures. Much of Europe, North America and Africa took much longer to bring in tough measures. Restrictions on travel between and activity within nations were of varying stringency.

By mid April, nearly 300 million people, or about 90% of the population, were under some form of lockdown in the United States, with around 100 million in the Philippines and about 59 million in South Africa, while around 1.3 billion were under lockdown in India, which was the largest of all lockdowns.

By the end of April, around 300 million people were under lockdown in various countries of Europe, including but not limited to Italy, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom; while around 200 million people were under lockdown in Latin America. In Germany, 35% of workers worked from home in addition to their regular on-site duties, while 26% worked from home exclusively.

Variation by countries and territories

Countries and territories around the world enforced lockdowns of varying stringency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included total movement control while others enforced restrictions based on time. In many cases, only essential businesses were allowed to remain open. Schools, universities and colleges closed either on a nationwide or local basis in 63 countries, affecting approximately 47 percent of the world's student population.

Beginning with the first lockdown in China's Hubei province and nationwide in Italy in March 2020, lockdowns continued to be implemented in many countries throughout 2020 and 2021. On 24 March 2020, the entire 1.3 billion population of India was ordered to stay at home during its lockdown, making it the largest of the pandemic. The world's longest continuous lockdown lasting 234 days took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2020. As of October 2021, the city of Melbourne, Australia, and certain cities in Peru and Chile spent the most cumulative days in lockdown over separate periods, although measures varied between these countries.

A few countries and territories did not use the strategy, including Japan, Belarus, Nicaragua, Sweden, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uruguay, two states in Brazil (Roraima and Rondônia) and certain United States states.