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STUDENT'S MAGAZINE \

By the 10th April , new infection cases in Daegu which had exceeded 100 a day had dropped
to zero for the first time in 52 days.

The next country we will look at in terms of lockdown is the United States of America.
Having a federal government, means a nationwide lockdown is nearly impossible for Wash-
ington to impose as most states operate autonomously. Yet, most U.S. states have imposed
lockdown with different measures restricting gathering and social contact. California was
the first to issue citizens to avoid non essential outdoor activities in mid-March. Several oth-
er states such as Illinois, Indiana and Michigan have ordered businesses, schools, and work-
places to close and banned public gatherings. On the other hand, the less-affected states, for
instance, Mississippi have closed schools but have yet to impose any other restrictions. So
far, at least 24 states have ordered all residents to stay home and seven have announced the
closure of schools.

While most of Europe’s population were under lockdown, one country stood out in allow-
ing free movement within the country. Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegbell called
for a “low-scale” approach that “is much more sustainable” over a longer period. The “low-
scale” approaches included banning gatherings larger than 50 people, close high schools and
universities, urging the elderly to self-isolate while schools for younger children, restaurants
and most businesses were still allowed to open. Sweden has since started imposing much
stricter restrictions as its cases of coronavirus and deaths rose, with other Scandinavian
countries that moved to lock-down quicker like Denmark have fared much better.

THE BALANCE BETWEEN HEALTH

AND THE ECONOMY

Since the pandemic has started, it has been severely affecting the economy of every country
and continues to do so as the situation seems not to ease down easily. For example, not a
single residential real estate deal was made in Wuhan during its peak in February; for many
small businesses, the owners might not be able to rehire their workers right away and pay
for other expenses like equipment maintenance or pay rent due to the loss of income. As a
result, this led to an ongoing debate on whether governments should focus on the health
or the economy of the country. Interestingly, the western countries seem to care more about
restarting their economies than the countries in Asia such as China, Korea, India and Japan.

The Asia countries really put their effort into the health issues so that the curve would
flatten early and the number of cases would fall. For example, the Chinese government
declared many preventive measures and the Indian government locked down before there
were significant cases to protect their health systems . Many countries also provide a good
set of medications or even shut down their boundaries to make sure that the virus won’t
spread further and their citizens would be as safe as they could from the virus. For example,
Wuhan quickly shut down the whole city as soon as the outbreak happened and opened up all of the
hospitals so the patients can be fully treated.

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