On 24 September, the Lancet published a health policy article that analysed the different lockdown exit strategies employed in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, identifying key lessons learned.
At the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 900,000 lives worldwide, with almost 23 million confirmed cases. In their article, first authors Emeline Han and Melisa Mei Jin Tan compared and contrasted the lockdown exit measures take in in 9 high-income countries and regions: Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Norway, Spain and the UK. Using a comparative framework that included indicators of infection status, community engagement, public health capacity, health system capacity and measures for border control, they described the measures implemented in each of the 9 countries. For example, Japan, Germany, Norway, Spain and the UK have been reporting estimates of the COVID-19 reproduction number (R), while Hong Kong has based its analyses on a real-time R, which is harder to calculate but more accurate. The authors also highlight the fact that countries and regions have varied in their ability to implement effective systems to test, trace and isolate people with, or at high likelihood of having, COVID-19. The analysis emphasizes the importance of community engagement, and identifies several examples where political leaders have struggled to secure public trust.
Lessons learned include the importance of establishing robust systems to monitor the infection situation, similar to countries such as Hong Kong and South Korea. Lockdown exit strategies that are clear, transparent and use a staged or phased approach are commended, as are those that implement effective contract tracing and isolation systems. Finally, the authors emphasise the importance of regularly reviewing and optimizing their processes, based on up-to-date knowledge of epidemiological, public and community health parameters.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32007-9/fulltext
