Lockdowns bring benefits, but also divisions

The coronavirus pandemic has become a story of division: As the authorities in some places loosen restrictions, other areas are still deep in the throes of crisis. With the number of cases reaching 4.4 million globally and deaths topping 300,000, the effects of shutdowns — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse — are becoming increasingly evident.

In Southeast Asia, where traffic accidents are a major killer, lockdowns have lowered the number of deaths on the road as more people stay home. In India, record drops in the level of carbon emissions have been documented for the first time in decades.

In much of Australia, patrons were allowed to return to cafes and restaurants on Friday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the changes were “a welcome sign that we are on the road back.”

But the lockdowns have also taken a serious toll on economies around the world. Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, said on Friday that it is essentially in an economic free fall, shrinking at the highest rate in more than a decade and leaving the country in recession.

The measures have also begun sowing unrest. Lockdowns set off protest movements from the United States to Spain, staged by residents unhappy with mandated limitations on movement and commerce. In one wealthy Madrid neighborhood, residents gathered on the street nightly this week to voice their discontent.

Sweden has sought to strike a delicate balance by keeping the economy open while also maintaining public health, but new data are shedding more light on just how ambitious and difficult it can be to achieve both goals at once.

Although the country has avoided the devastating tolls of outbreaks in Italy, Spain and Britain, it also has seen an extraordinary increase in deaths, mortality data assessed by The New York Times show.

“It is clear that mortality in Stockholm has been a lot higher than you would expect from a normal year,” said Martin Kolk, a demographer at Stockholm University. “But we will have to wait and see what happens.”

Source: The New York Times