In early 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread rapidly across the globe, experts realized that lockdown measures, such as curfews, stay-at-home orders, or quarantines, reduced and slowed the spread of the virus.
By April 2020, almost half the world's population was under some form of lockdown, and more than 3.9 billion people across 90 countries and territories were following government-ordered lockdown restrictions.
As of October 2021, Melbourne Australia has spent the most cumulative days in lockdown, at 267 days over several different periods. The largest single lockdown took place in March 2020 when the entire 1.3 billion person population of India was ordered to follow stay-at-home restrictions.
Israel first entered into a COVID-19 lockdown on March 19 2020 and remained under high-level restrictions until May 2020. However, a second lockdown was enforced from September 18 until October 10, 2020, in order to combat increasing infections around the Jewish holiday season. A third and, as of November 2021, final lockdown was implemented between December 27, 2020, and February 7, 2021.
Lockdown restrictions worldwide have been the center of ongoing tensions and protests for various reasons. Some oppose lockdown restrictions due to the economic and social impact they can have, and others have protested as a result of misinformation regarding the pandemic and the danger it presents.
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