[St Charles Owl]

To be fair NZ and Australia have not been on lockdown as we know it at all. Their lockdown was basically shutting down anyone being able to enter or leave the country, even their onw citizens. My Brother and his family live in Australia, he and his wife were stuck in Thailand late last year and couldn't get home until they were granted a seat on a plane that was monitored by the Govt and then when they landed they spent 2 weeks in a hotel. My niece and nephew were in Australia through the whole thing and they have had virtually no restrictions on what they can do since their first lockdown last year. They do see local restrictions as cases rise but they have been able to do most things throughout.

Here in CA as well, we went on a strict lockdown in April 2020 but since then virtually everything has been open with restrictions. Large gathering events were shutdown, concerts, sports etc, but shops and restaurants have been open with limited capacity and mandatory mask wearing. We have the weather to take dining outside all year and the cities have done a great job in relaxing outdoor dining rules to help businesses continue.

We know enough about this now to know that we cannot kill economies by shutting everything down but at the same time we shouldn't be wide open with the number of cases we are seeing in the UK. Wearing masks indoors and having some social distancing we know really helps stem the spread, so keep those rules in place and shut down places that don't adhere to this. It can be done but flip flopping from lockdown to open won't work and as we have seen in the Red states over here being completely open and not being vaccinated will see you get it and potentially die!!