Other (non UK) countries approach to easing lockdown

A friend sent me this link which shows how Switzerland is planning to ease lockdown over a period of time.

The government approach to loosening the lockdown is based on a number of factors and expert recommendations aimed at protecting the public. The economy is also a consideration.

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As can be seen a phased relaxation of lockdown will be in place although it is important to note that the Swiss appear to have a rigorous testing regime in place to facilitate this.

What are the plans in other countries other than the UK?

States doing it their way. My state GA restaurants are open but tables spaced. Other businesses starting to open bit by bit.

Airlines - all -must wear masks from check in through to boarding. Planes boarding from the rear. Middle seats blocked out.

Sadly all on political lines. It is an election year and I am afraid it is NOT "We are all in this together" but a real dirt flinging etc. Not nice.

The warm weather is helping - especially restaurants - as tables are being set outside.

Some beaches and parks now open. Schools not open until new school year.

Mag_seven said:

A friend sent me this link which shows how Switzerland is planning to ease lockdown over a period of time.

Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland - SWI swissinfo.ch

An overview of the latest Covid-related information in the Alpine nation.

www.swissinfo.ch

As can be seen a phased relaxation of lockdown will be in place although it is important to note that the Swiss appear to have a rigorous testing regime in place to facilitate this.

What are the plans in other countries other than the UK?

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I don't think "lockdown" is the right term to use for what has gone on in Switzerland, though it is sometimes used in Swiss publications in English. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary "lockdown" means "a situation in which people are not allowed to enter or leave a building or area freely because of an emergency". The approach referred to in German as "Ausgangssperre" (literally "ban on going out", German) and in French as "confinement générale" ("generalised confinement") was specifically not adopted by the government. What has happened instead has been the imposition of restrictions on public life, such as bans on gathering of more than five people and the requirement to keep a distance of 2m from others in public. There have also been school closures and widespread teleworking. However, there has never been a ban on domestic travel or going outdoors, simply strongly worded recommendations to minimise it. People have largely heeded the government's to stay at home as far as possible and public transport passenger numbers have fell by 80-90% at the start of the period of restrictions, and the fall in the number of COVID-19 cases suggests that the measures have been sufficient to have an impact. People are now being strongly advised to wear masks on public transport, though they are not being distributed for free but simply sold at market prices by retailers.

France, Spain and Italy are now moving from not letting most people out of their houses except to buy food to restrictions which more closely resemble the ones seen in the UK (no non-essential travel). In France, lockdown will not longer be in force from 11 May but people will not be allowed to travel more than 100km from their primarily residence. Schools will also start reopening. In Italy, people are now allowed to go out for walks and visit relatives, more people are allowed to go to work, for example on building sites, and take-aways have reopened. In Spain, people were allowed to go back to offices in April but otherwise the measures seem to have remained very strict. The plan is to ease restrictions in stages, with each stage lasting at least two weeks, and different areas of the country moving forward at different rates.

Belgium also imposed a ban on non-essential travel and from this week is now instead requiring passengers on public transport to wear masks. Non-essential travel continues to be disallowed. Switzerland, Germany and Sweden don't have internal travel restrictions. In Germany there were some local restrictions in force in April aimed at stopping holiday makers reaching certain areas. At the end of April a requirement to wear masks on local public transport and when going shopping was introduced. Germany is organised federally and the individual states have a lot of power and have introduced and subsequently relaxed restrictions differently. In Switzerland, people are being advised to keep travel to a minimum and wear masks. The Czech Republic and Slovakia closed their borders after very few domestic cases were verified and introduced requirements to wear masks. They have now started lifting restrictions on businesses, but intend to keep their borders closed.

In Germany, it's of course federal (how useful or useless that might be)...

In Bavaria there is now a relatively detailed plan including opening schools (but changing through the years every week or so), gastronomy (especialy the all important Biergartens!) and museums etc. So far, we had a rather loose "proper" lockdown, you weren't allowed to leave your flat without a good reason (but the reasons included "sport/activity in the open", which was of course very open for interpretation), we now have the standard-German Kontaktsperre. Masks are obligatory in public transport and shops, which are now opening (even those over 800m², which was rather random).

Any relaxations will be taken back if the number of cases increases significantly (50 new cases/100.000 ihabitants in seven days in a certain area). It seems quite comparable to the Swiss approach.

Other "Länder" have slightly different plans, but the overall trend is pretty much comparable.

My university continues in all-online mode, which is working supprisingly well so far, but a lot of lectures would have been streamed and recorded anyways (and some courses use last years lectures).

Some news from France...

The lockdown will start to be eased down from next Monday (May, 11th). There are "green" and "red" regions depending on the number of active COVID-19 cases but with limited differences in policy, mainly on the schedule by which schools and parks will reopen. Free movement is permitted within 100 km of home. Longer journeys are only permitted in exceptional circumstances (a self-declaration is necessary).

To use public transport, masks will be mandatory (in fact today my city council has dropped masks in all mailboxes) and the government has asked for remote working to be continued at least until June.

Lines have been drawn on train platforms to ensure distancing, stickers applied on half the seats and where possible the flow of departing and arriving passengers will be separated.
30% of TGVs will run (with only half of seats sold), 50% of TERs and up to 90% of metros and RERs. The Lyria service will partially restart.

There is a considerable concern in the Paris region, as buses and metro lines have been quite crowded in the last few days and the government requests trains and buses not to carry more than 10-20% of their nominal capacity.
In this region, to try to cap the peak, an employer permit with a fixed one-hour slot for departure and return is required to travel in the peak hours.

This led the managers of the main transport operators (RATP, SNCF, ...) to send a stern letter to the government, which is very unusual as the relationship between them is cosy if not incestuous. They are asking for support to ensure physical distancing as they do not have enough personnel. They also warn they will not accept being held responsible if they fail to ensure physical distancing and that firmly applying this policy will inevitably cause considerable unrest amongst passengers and employees.

Monday morning will certainly be interesting...

Deconfinement Plan by the Portuguese government, reviewed every 15 days:

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From Monday (11th) in France, the 1Km limit for travel, gets extended to 100Km.

Note that in contrast to the UK, where travel by public transport for leisure is "discouraged", in Switzerland its OK with some advice about when its best to travel for leisure:

Try to avoid travelling during the morning and evening rush hours, and use less popular routes, especially if you are travelling for leisure.

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Mag_seven said:

Note that in contrast to the UK, where travel by public transport for leisure is "discouraged", in Switzerland its OK with some advice about when its best to travel for leisure:

COVID-19: Protect yourself and others

How can we protect ourselves and others against coronavirus infection? Find out here.

www.bag.admin.ch

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That all seems a quite sober and adult approach to this. No hysteria, no implying you could kill millions just by breathing, just here's the best advice, would you mind awfully keeping to the guidelines. The UK government could learn a lot from the Swiss sensible and pragmatic approach.

As there wasn't a so-called lockdown in Sweden in the first place there isn't much to ease except the big ones such as mass international travel and anything with big crowds.

The response has generally been very calm, with no panic. Certainly no quarantining of books! Even lunch restaurants have no gone back to normal with buffet salads, bread and so on openly accessible (whatever one might think about this from a hygene point in general!). Shoppng is just normal with nearly everyone respecting keeping a distance as much as realistically possible if one wants to have a functioning society. Restaurants/bars must enforce simple social distancing and some have been temporarily closed for failure to observe.

scarby said:

As there wasn't a so-called lockdown in Sweden in the first place there isn't much to ease except the big ones such as mass international travel and anything with big crowds.

The response has generally been very calm, with no panic. Certainly no quarantining of books! Even lunch restaurants have no gone back to normal with buffet salads, bread and so on openly accessible (whatever one might think about this from a hygene point in general!). Shoppng is just normal with nearly everyone respecting keeping a distance as much as realistically possible if one wants to have a functioning society. Restaurants/bars must enforce simple social distancing and some have been temporarily closed for failure to observe.

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How does it work in restaurants? Tables aren't normally more than a metre wide and often quite close together. With booth style seating, people in adjacent booths will only be half a metre apart although they will be facing away from each other.

Bikeman78 said:

How does it work in restaurants? Tables aren't normally more than a metre wide and often quite close together. With booth style seating, people in adjacent booths will only be half a metre apart although they will be facing away from each other.

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Well, members of the same household can be as close to each other as they like.

Bletchleyite said:

Well, members of the same household can be as close to each other as they like.

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Yes I understand that but if we go out for dinner, more often than not, we go with friends or family that live elsewhere. I guess this is still allowed in Sweden.

Bikeman78 said:

How does it work in restaurants? Tables aren't normally more than a metre wide and often quite close together. With booth style seating, people in adjacent booths will only be half a metre apart although they will be facing away from each other.

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At some places I have seen seats taped off so there is at least an empty seat between groups. And at my local which has seats set up as you describe, but actually outside, they put screens up. I actually prefer it, before you were almost doing a back to back.

You cannot just hang around standing up in bars, you need to have a seat. Some places have been temporarily shut for violations, so staff tend to be pretty vigilant about keeping things under control.

Yes you can go out and meet with whoever you want. There is no specification to keep at a distance from people you are actually socialising with. You are advised to socially distance from strangers “if you can”.

To be honest, life on the streets and in shops and restaurants is only slightly removed from normal.

scarby said:

At some places I have seen seats taped off so there is at least an empty seat between groups. And at my local which has seats set up as you describe, but actually outside, they put screens up. I actually prefer it, before you were almost doing a back to back.

You cannot just hang around standing up in bars, you need to have a seat. Some places have been temporarily shut for violations, so staff tend to be pretty vigilant about keeping things under control.

Yes you can go out and meet with whoever you want. There is no specification to keep at a distance from people you are actually socialising with. You are advised to socially distance from strangers “if you can”.

To be honest, life on the streets and in shops and restaurants is only slightly removed from normal.

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That sounds quite reasonable. Certainly much better than what we are putting up with in the UK. They were obsessed with the two metre distance in today's government update.

With infections dropping significantly Czech Republic has eased masking requirements. Face covering is no longer required generally outdoors but remains in force on public transport and indoors where 2m distancing can't be guaranteed.

Compulsory wearing of face masks outside ditched as pubs, restaurants and hotels reopen

The Czech Republic has lifted its trailblazing rule requiring face masks to be worn in public, a symbolic landmark in the country’s relatively successful battle against Covid-19. The long-awaited lifting of the regulation – imposed in March shortly after a state of emergency was declared – coincided with the final phase of an easing of lockdown restrictions, in which pubs, restaurants, hotels and museums have been fully reopening their doors. Czech officials have pressed ahead with a phased easing of restrictions amid a consistent decline in the number of confirmed cases. The health minister, Adam Vojtěch, declared last week that “the Covid-19 crisis is behind us”.Health ministry figures reported 8,932 confirmed cases as of 24 May, with nearly 400,000 tests performed. There have been 315 deaths.

The Czech Republic was among the first countries in Europe to close its borders against the spread of coronavirus, on 12 March, ordering the closure of most businesses days later. But the mask edict – in common with neighbouring Slovakia – quickly became the symbol of the Czech fight against the pandemic, prompting debate in other countries over whether they should follow suit. The rule was imposed by prime minister Andrej Babiš’ government after Prague city council initially introduced it for travelling on the capital’s public transport network. It was quickly embraced by the public despite the government coming under fire for failing to provide emergency facewear. People were encouraged to make their own masks at home, while students at fashion schools worked to provide them on a voluntary basis. The psychological effect was clear on Monday, as many people continued to wear masks outdoors despite the ending of the regulation. Some said they did not know why they continued to wear them despite it no longer being required.
...
Masks are still mandatory on public transport and in indoor facilities where people cannot guarantee standing a minimum of 2 metres apart. Pub and restaurant-goers are also expected to keep wearing masks when not eating or drinking.

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Forced to wear masks *outdoors*?! What possible good could that have done?

This makes some of the sillier things we've done in the UK look almost sane by comparison.

(and I note the description in the article of this idea being 'trailblazing'. Sadly this is all too common nowadays, but how did it become acceptable to inject this sort of opinion into a 'news' article in a 'quality' newspaper?)

MarkyT said:

With infections dropping significantly Czech Republic has eased masking requirements. Face covering is no longer required generally outdoors but remains in force on public transport and indoors where 2m distancing can't be guaranteed.

Czech Republic lifts face mask rule as coronavirus restrictions ease

Compulsory wearing of face masks outside ditched as pubs, restaurants and hotels reopen

www.theguardian.com

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And in one fell swoop you've demonstrated one reason why people like me are concerned that people like you advocate compulsory mask wearing when the science is inconclusive.

The Czech Republic was among the first countries in Europe to close its borders against the spread of coronavirus, on 12 March, ordering the closure of most businesses days later. But the mask edict – in common with neighbouring Slovakia – quickly became the symbol of the Czech fight against the pandemic, prompting debate in other countries over whether they should follow suit. The rule was imposed by prime minister Andrej Babiš’ government after Prague city council initially introduced it for travelling on the capital’s public transport network. It was quickly embraced by the public despite the government coming under fire for failing to provide emergency facewear. People were encouraged to make their own masks at home, while students at fashion schools worked to provide them on a voluntary basis. The psychological effect was clear on Monday, as many people continued to wear masks outdoors despite the ending of the regulation. Some said they did not know why they continued to wear them despite it no longer being required.

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Bantamzen said:

And in one fell swoop you've demonstrated one reason why people like me are concerned that people like you advocate compulsory mask wearing when the science is inconclusive.

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But what harm is a few continuing to wear unnecessarily as the emergency declines? They've obviously got into the habit that's all. If the decline continues then more and more will cease wearing gradually. Your statement about inconclusivity of 'the science' is unrelated to that, and I'd argue that evidence is still building for masks' effectiveness, for instance the halving of staff infection rates at a Boston hospital where universal masking for staff and patients was introduced:

MarkyT said:

But what harm is a few continuing to wear unnecessarily as the emergency declines? They've obviously got into the habit that's all. If the decline continues then more and more will cease wearing gradually. Your statement about inconclusivity of 'the science' is unrelated to that, and I'd argue that evidence is still building for masks' effectiveness, for instance the halving of staff infection rates at a Boston hospital where universal masking for staff and patients was introduced:

Coronavirus Diagnoses In Staff Drop By Half After Boston Hospital Requires Masks For All

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Please re-read the section of your previous quote I emboldened, your answer is right there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52808113
A few key extracts:

"It's certainly time to lift the lockdown," says Gautam Menon, a professor and researcher on models of infectious diseases.

"Beyond a point, it's hard to sustain a lockdown that has gone on for so long - economically, socially and psychologically."

From day one, India's lockdown came at a huge cost...

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"The original purpose of the lockdowns was to delay the spike so we can put health services and systems in place, so we are able handle the spike [when it comes]," says Dr N Devadasan, a public health expert. "That objective, to a large extent, has been met."

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...Raghuram Rajan, an economist and former central bank governor, said at the end of April that the country needed to open up quickly, and any further lockdowns would be "devastating".

The opinion is shared by global consultant McKinsey, whose report from earlier this month said India's economy must be "managed alongside persistent infection risks"....

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...The overwhelming message is that the virus is here to stay, and we have to learn to live with it - and the only way to do that, it appears, is to let people live with it...

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Bantamzen said:

Please re-read the section of your previous quote I emboldened, your answer is right there.

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That doesn't mean they're psychologically damaged or otherwise harmed by the experience. They will get out of the habit again quickly I'm certain, and if they've been somehow 'brainwashed' they will adopt masks again quickly in any future epidemic like they do in the far east, which will help control infection, and limit suffering, death and economic damage in that one too. It seems to me a beneficial habit to develop.

In Australia, the approach has varied state by state.

Three of the six mainland states - Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia - closed off their borders to non-local residents, and still have, though the first two are reopening on 10 and 20 July respectively.

So did the island state of Tasmania and the small in population (c.200000) Northern Territory. Tassie like WA has yet to announce a reopening date, so mainlanders cannot visit.

These closed states have typically enforced 14 day quarantine for people returning.

The two largest states, population wise, of NSW and Victoria did not close borders.

Melbourne to Sydney has had the XPT twice daily (like a British HST, but max speed 160kmh and better aircon) trains resume. They had been not operating between Albury and Melbourne between 20 February and about 4 June due to the Wallan Loop XPT derailment that was no fault of the track, but severe speed restrictions were imposed. The operator (NSW government) of the trains is enforcing social distancing on board (reserved seats only, strangers not booked together) but as with all Oz railways and public transport, no need to wear a mask.

The 'Indian Pacific' and 'The Ghan' transcontinental trains were to recommence on 1 July 2020 but borders won't be open by then.

V/Line, NSWTrainLink and Queensland Rail didn't cancel many trips, rural or interurban.

Bear in mind of 25 million, only 102 have died with fewer than 8000 cases, so different (arguably 'safer') than USA, Europe, UK or many other places in the world.

Cafes in the various states are now allowed to have one person per four square metres while in some places like South Australia, some pubs have reopened. Hotels (for accommodation) are mostly open again, while the ski season in NSW and Victoria (Thredbo and Mt Buller/Hotham and the like) opens between 12 and 22 June 2020.

I don't know any heritage railways that have reopened. The former Victorian Railways branch line (Victorian Goldfields Railway, linking the historic towns of Castlemaine and Maldon, Vic) is closed, as is world famous Puffing Billy in Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges at Belgrave.

Some rail tour operators like St James Rail (based in Sydney) are starting to operate local trips, but international travel is impossible as Australian citizens are not allowed to depart, and foreigners not allowed in.

Patronage on our metropolitan rail, tram and bus networks is way down but is gradually recovering, and will improve further once offices reopen to more.

Melbourne to Sydney used to be easily in the top five domestic air routes with up to 75 flights each way a day but this is currently down to about three to six, although by the end of July may be up to about 20 each way, fewer on Saturdays. The second airline Virgin Australia is in administration with more than A$7 billion in debt, and may in the end be liquidated.

I wasn't sure where to put this, but it fits here. There's light at the end of the tunnel. I know, we've got there, pretty much.

The Isle of Man has ended all social distancing laws. From Friday, pubs, nightclubs, cinemas and swimming pools can re-open without restriction. Shops are already open without restriction and without the need to restrict numbers or queue outside. The temporary national speed limit is abolished on Monday. Buses are back to their normal timetable- almost- and there are no longer any restrictions on use.

The last piece of the jigsaw is the border. It remains closed. It will do until the UK catches up. That's the only bummer. I'm looking forward to a pint of Bushy's, it's just a shame my dad can't come over to share it with me.