A recent study throws some light into the ongoing lockdown procedures and its effectiveness in fighting the pandemic. The research shows how strict policies actually helped all of humanity stay alive. However, coronavirus lockdown along with strong social distancing policies helped prevent a huge number of deaths. If not for these large-scale anti-contamination policies, we wouldn’t have been here, alive.
Right now the reported number of cases for COVID-19 stands somewhere around 7 million. But all of these numbers are across the world in 400,000 facilities. The peer-reviewed research published in the Nature Journal analyzes the impact of all such large-scale policies. According to the researchers, the Coronavirus lockdown helped save 500 million lives.
The coronavirus alert level is *still* at 4, where it's effectively been since the beginning of lockdown, Matt Hancock tells Sky.
No10 insists there's not a direct link between the alert level and changes to lockdown.
But here's what the government's own slide said on May 11: pic.twitter.com/4fTNcBRKmi
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) June 7, 2020
Coronavirus lockdown: The advantages of the lockdown
Seemingly small delays in policy deployment likely produced dramatically different health outcomes in different countries, said Solomon Hsiang, lead author on the paper from the University of California, Berkeley. However, the authors distinguished between the prevention of cases that would have been reported and those that would never have been diagnosed.
Home isolation, business closures, and lockdowns produced the clearest benefits, the study found. Travel restrictions and bans on gatherings had good results in Italy and Iran, but their impact was less clear in the US.
There is strong evidence that school closures have an effect on any country. But the team says that more research should be there to inform decisions on opening or Closing schools. Let us know what you think of this in the comments section below! Also do not forget to join us on our Telegram Channel for more such latest updates and discussions.
Suryapratim Ray is an engineer, author, robotics hobbyist, and an active Quoran. Being a technical blogger, he covers the good, bad, and ugly of science on a regular basis at Sciencenews18. In addition to his passion for writing, he’s equally keen on learning classical music.