Lockdown

What does it do? When did it start? What is it expected to achieve?

It restricts people's movement. Businesses were closed, transport was taking over by the government due to the expected lack of use by the public. Large outdoor meetings were prohibited, all indoor meetings were discouraged and it was recommened that everyone stays in their own immediate bubble. Online shopping and deliveries took off.

On 23-March-2020 the Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a press broadcast and announced the start of lockdown. "China's first confirmed Covid-19 case traced back to November 17". The first confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK were on January 29, when two Chinese nationals fell ill at the Staycity Aparthotel in York. All through February the government kept issuing messages about hand washing, staying indoors, only essential travel was allowed, for example emergency service staff.

The government started to produce messages, at first it was "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" this changed to "Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives". It seemed as though the first message at the beginning made sense and people understood, it was black & white, but then it became more grey and misunderstood.

Then the government created a 'Test & Trace app' so that when people went indoors they recorded their details and if coronavirus was detected during that period they would be contacted and told to go into self isolation. This has been a bit 'hit & miss' with less public participation than the original 'stay indoors' message. Officialy the line was "The service will allow us to trace the spread of the virus and isolate new infections and play a vital role in giving us early warning if the virus is increasing again, locally or nationally."

Lockdown was enabled to stop [or slow down] the spread of the virus, and it is possible that it has, but we have no results from a non-lockdown situation to compare it to, so there are two sides to the equation and it seems to be a personal choice which one you choose.

Presumably there will be a time when the government will announce "COVID is Over", everything will re-open, everyone will return to work, but how can that happen. No government has ever said "Colds no Longer Exist" or "Flu is Finished", so how can there ever be a time when this current crisis is over?