Stay-at-home order

Not to be confused with Shelter-in-place.

A stay-at-home order (North America) or a movement control order (Southeast Asia) is an order from a government authority to restrict movements of a population as a mass quarantine strategy for suppressing, or mitigating, an epidemic, or pandemic, by ordering residents to stay home except for essential tasks or to work in essential businesses. In many cases, outdoor activities are allowed. Nonessential businesses are either closed or adapted to working from home. In some regions, it has been implemented as a round-the-clock curfew or called a shelter-in-place order, but it is not to be confused with a shelter in place situation. Similar measures have been used around the world, but the term lockdown is used instead. Some officials have a concern that the word lockdown may send a wrong message for people to incorrectly think that it includes door-to-door searching for infected people to be forced into quarantines similar to the Hubei lockdown.

Terminology

See also: Shelter in place and Lockdown

The term lockdown was used by the media and the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the action taken in January 2020 by the government of China to restrict movements of people in order to control the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan. When Italian authorities imposed a strict quarantine order in the northern part of the country, the media also used the term lockdown, which was used for Spain and France, as well as other countries around the world. Although it is not a technical term in public health or laws, the media continued to use lockdown to describe the actions taken by these governments. As the lockdowns were expanded to other countries, there was a shift in the definitions. Measures are less restrictive and other terms emerged in attempts to differentiate from the most restrictive measure in China.

File:Loyalsock Volunteer Fire Co COVID-19 warning sign.jpg

Many jurisdictions in the United States have referred to their stay-at-home orders by the slogan "Stay home, stay safe."

When the authorities in San Francisco Bay Area issued an order in March 2020 for residents to stay home to control the outbreak of COVID-19, they called it a shelter-in-place order. People were not familiar with it as the term shelter in place had been used in other emergency situations such as an active shooter which would require seeking a safe place to hide within the same building that the person already occupies until the situation is resolved. This caused confusion to the residents under the order on what exactly they are supposed to do.

When Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state-wide order for California which would supersede the Bay Area's order, he used the term stay-at-home order instead. Other US states started using the new term when they announced their statewide order. In a press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York criticized anyone using the term shelter in place for his stay-at-home order as it would invoke panic due to its association with active shooting situations or nuclear wars.

Lockdowns in the United States

In the United States and Canada, the term lockdown has been widely used in emergency preparedness. A lockdown procedure requires immediate actions in hiding and locking all doors. Additional actions may be taken such as turning off lights and staying away from windows. Students in all grade levels around the country participate in lockdown drills on a regular basis.

The word lockdown can also be associated with martial law to mean that people cannot leave their homes. In an attempt to avoid confusion, Lori Lightfoot, the communist Mayor of Chicago, made a comment about the stay-at-home order of Illinois by trying to differentiate it from a lockdown or a martial law.

When states, provinces, and counties across the United States and Canada issued an order to have residents to remain home, they either called it shelter-in-place order or stay-at-home order. It has been clarified that these orders are not lockdowns because residents are allowed to go in and out of their homes in limited circumstances. Some jurisdictions have determined that there is a legal or practical distinction between the terms "stay-at-home" and "shelter-in-place".

Orders

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A sign in Rendsburg, Germany indicates that the playground is closed.

Powers

In the United States, the United States constitutional law gives a police power to the states. State governments can use this power within their own state. However, there is no clear authority for either the federal government or state governments to impose such a lockdown between states. In term of legality of an order, the government must be able to prove that the order advances a "compelling government interest" and the actions are narrow to specifically achieve that goal and they are not unnecessary broad.

Scopes

The scope of the lockdowns or stay-at-home orders can vary. There is no universal definition of what is deemed essential. Some orders allow residents to come out for outdoor activities. When residents come out of the house, the social distancing rules are typically applied. Some examples of essential services are banks, gas stations, grocery stores, medical offices, pharmacies, and restaurants (without dining in).

In more restrictive measures in some locations, they require residents to carry paperwork (i.e., appropriate proof of qualifications) in order to go out and perform essential tasks (i.e., supply chain infrastructure, food delivery, healthcare, law enforcement, etc.). In the most restrictive orders such as in China and Italy, they are considered to amount to cordon sanitaires.

Effectiveness

In the early days of China's lockdown to combat COVID-19, many public-health officials and the World Health Organization praised the efforts in helping to slow the spread of the disease. However, the figures quoted by China were later questioned by Hong Kong University's school of public health, which claimed that the real number of cases was four times higher. Many public-health experts have regarded the measures as ineffective and unethical, expressing concern about a violation of public trust - which is required in order to have cooperation from the public to make social-distancing measures effective.

COVID-19 pandemic

Main article: Curfews and lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic

Numerous stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar restrictions were enforced globally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries and territories around the world have enforced lockdowns of varying degrees. Some include total movement control while others have enforced restrictions based on time. Mostly, only essential businesses are allowed to remain open. Schools, universities and colleges have closed either on a nationwide or local basis in 63 countries, affecting approximately 47 per cent of the world's student population.