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\ EPTS GAZETTE

As a result of the lockdown, Italian hotels, travel companies, and restaurants were put under intense pres-
sure, the whole economy is almost certain to go into recession this year.

By early April more than 124,00 people in Italy had tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began
and it had the highest coronavirus death toll in the world( which has since been overtaken by the USA.
Several weeks after the nationwide lockdown, the country seemed not to have made significant progress
as the number of cases are still rising, however the rate of infection has started to slow down. Provinces in
the North where the initial cases were diagnosed have shown a sustained decline in new infections. This is
strong evidence which gave the country hope that it would be able to arise from its lockdown. Italy extend-
ed its lockdown to at least mid-April and it may remain in place longer.

In Spain on 13 March 2020, Prime Minister announced a declaration of a nationwide ‘state of alarm,’ the
lowest of the three degrees of state of emergency for 15 days. Two days later, a national lockdown on 47 mil-
lion citizens was imposed in accordance with a sharp rise in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Drastic measures forced people to stay at home apart from a few exceptions such as buying food and
medicine, work or attending emergencies. Outdoor exercise was not permitted, unlike in many countries.
There was a temporary closure of non-essential businesses, including bars, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and
commercial and retail businesses while the government had the authority to take over private healthcare
providers if needed.

Up to mid April, Spain had close to 20,000 fatalities, the third most COVID-19 deaths and cases in the
world. Yet, there was a slowdown in the rate of infections giving an encouraging sign for the country to
consider lifting the lockdown. Government has allowed some people in occupations such as construction
and manufacturing to return to work, though there have been extended restrictions on movement across
Spain’s land borders with France and Portugal. Further restrictions are predicted to ease subsequently with
at least more 45 days in quarantine.

The third country we are going to look into is the United Kingdom. The lockdown in the UK started on
March 23(later than other countries in Europe) when prime minister Boris Johnson announced the limits
on where and how people could interact during the coronavirus crisis. The measures introduced for the
lockdown in the UK were similar to measures in Wuhan, Italy and Spain, but a lot less stringent with softer
penalties and less restrictions. In the UK, there were four reasons why people were permitted to leave home
unlike Italy and Spain. Those four reasons were shopping for food and other necessities, to exercise alone
or with someone from the same household, for medical issues, and to travel and from work. People have
been told to follow the social-distancing regulations and avoid all non-essential contact with others. More-
over, while most of the businesses in other countries in the lockdown were ordered to close down, people
identified as key workers; those who work in health and social areas like education, government, public
services, people providing food and other necessary goods, transportation services and utilities could still
go to work. All bars, pubs, cafes, restaurants, schools were ordered to close except parks which remained
open in some areas for exercise purposes.

To make the people follow the lockdown restrictions, police officers were given extra powers under the
lockdown. They could tell people to go home or leave the area and either arrest them, give them a fine or
even forcibly take them home if they were disobeying. The fines for violating the lockdown rules were set
at 60 pounds and would be reduced to 30 pounds if paid in 14 days. However these fines were light when
compared with countries like France. Where citizens could be fined up to 500 Euros and needed an official
document to be allowed out of the house.

South Korea on the other hand never imposed a curfew or lockdown.. Rather, the strict regulations were
imposed in some cities, for example, Daegu. Daegu was known as the outbreak center where the major
outbreak occurred with a cluster from a religious group. It was declared as ‘special care zones.’ People were
advised to stay indoors and adhered to social distancing as much as possible. Phone tracking through an
app was extensively used to make sure that affected individuals were isolating themselves.

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