What about countries that didn't lockdown?
If you look at the statistics 12 countries didn't have 'lockdowns' but they had some kind of rules they were advised to follow.
Countries and territories without lockdowns
A drive through COVID-19 testing site in
South Korea in February 2020. South Korea's
K-Quarantine strategy included rapidly developing mass testing capacity and infrastructure.
Most countries and territories affected with COVID-19 introduced and enforced some form of lockdown. However, only a few exceptions included
Japan,
South Korea and
Taiwan, which rapidly and consistently implemented highly organized mass
testing,
contact tracing, public messaging and selective quarantining to identify and isolate outbreaks.
[380][381] South Korea's
K-Quarantine system was praised in international media for its effectiveness.
[382][383][384] Authorities in
Tokyo, the capital of Japan, advised businesses to close and the population to stay at home, but did not have legal authority to enforce a lockdown or penalise non-compliance. Compliance with advice was nevertheless high.
[385][386]
In the
European Union, the only nation not following this strategy is
Sweden.
[387] Led by its state epidemiologist
Anders Tegnell measures in Sweden included the closing of universities and high schools and asking older and at-risk residents to avoid social contact, while keeping restaurants, primary schools and kindergartens open and not mandating face masks.
[388][389] However, in early 2021, new laws permitting lockdown were enacted and Prime Minister
Stefan Löfven warned that a lockdown was being considered.
[390][391] As of November 2021, a national lockdown had not been announced. However certain regions of Sweden have declared their own lockdowns to help slow the rate of infection. The region of
Uppsala reported 908 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period compared to a national average of 772 in early April 2021. This caused the Health Chief of the region, Mikael Köhler, to ask individuals within the region to "act as if they were in a personal lockdown."
[392]
Some of the countries that did not enact lockdowns during 2020, did so later in the pandemic. In
Malawi, a proposed lockdown by the government was delayed by the High Court throughout 2020,
[393] until a state of emergency was declared and the country entered a lockdown in January 2021 in response to a worsening outbreak.
[394] Although
Cambodia restricted movement within the country during a period in 2020,
[395] it introduced its first major restrictions, including a
curfew and later a
stay-at-home order in the capital
Phnom Penh, during its largest outbreak to date in early 2021.
[396][397][398][122] East Timor also enacted its first lockdown of its capital
Dili in March 2021
[399] and
Turkey entered its first nationwide lockdown in April 2021.
[400][401]
Two states in Brazil and several others in the United States did not introduce any lockdown-type measures (commonly known as "
stay-at-home orders").
[402][403]