Coronavirus lockdowns are spreading a year after China closed Wuhan

In Australia, the recent discovery of one case in Brisbane prompted a three-day lockdown

A year after the lockdown imposed in the Chinese city of Wuhan shocked the world, the tactic is turning out to be an enduring tool for quelling the coronavirus almost everywhere.

When the first large-scale lockdown in modern times was implemented in China on Jan. 23 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was then deemed unproven and unthinkable, particularly by democratic governments who balked at the implications for human rights violations of limiting citizens’ freedom of movement on such a huge scale.

Yet almost 12 months on, the U.K. is in the midst of its third nationwide lockdown