Strategic COVID-19 Pandemic Committee

Is what we have right now a complete lockdown? What is a circuit breaker strategy?

COVID-19 Questions & Myths

In a complete lockdown, everyone is restricted to their homes, cannot have visitors, and has limited time to accomplish essential activities outside the home. For example, people might be allowed to leave their homes for an hour a day to get groceries or fill prescriptions. A lockdown may also involve measures such as mandated masking and provision of hand sanitizers at entrances and exits.

Partial lockdowns may restrict some activities by the type of activity, group size allowed, and time allowed for certain activities.

A circuit-breaker is a time-limited partial or complete lockdown intended to drop transmission quickly. For example, a four-week circuit-breaker might be used to decrease cases enough to re-establish contact tracing and reduce stress on health care. It is called a circuit breaker because it is similar to an electrical circuit breaker, which protects sensitive electrical equipment from damage by shutting down when it senses a potentially destructive surge of electricity. Similarly, a COVID-19 circuit breaker detects an increase in COVID-19 that could overwhelm the health care system, including contact tracing. It also shuts down activities that allow transmission of the virus and could create a surge of cases.