This archive report was first published on 3 July 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, a delicate balance between saving lives and reviving economies has become increasingly apparent. A CNN analysis of policies across 18 nations has shown that countries that lifted lockdowns too early have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, while those that waited for a sustained drop in cases have seen better outcomes.
On July 1, 2020, the European Union formally agreed on a set of recommendations for 15 countries it considers safe enough to allow their residents to travel into its territory. To get on the list, countries had to meet certain criteria, including having a stable or decreasing trend of new cases over the previous 14 days.
According to a modeling study published in the scientific journal Nature last month, lockdowns have likely prevented hundreds of millions of infections around the world. The study estimated that by early April, shutdown policies saved 285 million people in China from getting infected, 49 million in Italy, and 60 million in the US.
‘I don’t think any human endeavor has ever saved so many lives in such a short period of time. There have been huge personal costs to staying home and canceling events, but the data show that each day made a profound difference,’ said the study’s lead author, Solomon Hsiang, a professor and director of the Global Policy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.
However, the restrictions launched to counteract the disease have also been hugely damaging for the economy and have exacerbated existing inequalities in education and the workplace, as well as between genders, races, and socio-economic backgrounds. As shops and schools shut and nearly all travel ceased, hundreds of millions of people around the world have suddenly found themselves unemployed.
