When and how a country should ease restrictions are the common challenges that governments worldwide now face as they seek to balance various health, social, and economic concerns.

Rather, these restrictions give time for countries to reduce the incidence of disease and put in place robust, yet sustainable, measures to prevent and control transmission. 3 Lockdowns and other extreme restrictions cannot be sustained for the long term in the hope that there will be an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. The World Bank's projections point to the deepest global recession since World War 2, with millions of people falling into unemployment and poverty. 2 Although such measures might have saved lives, they have come at a heavy socioeconomic cost. 1 At least 186 countries have implemented varying degrees of restrictions on population movement to slow the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed these restrictions have amounted to lockdowns in 82 countries. By mid-September, 2020, over 22 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with almost 930 000 deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. Although the future of the virus is unknown at present, countries should continue to share their experiences, shield populations who are at risk, and suppress transmission to save lives. This comparative analysis presents important lessons to be learnt from the experiences of these countries and regions. To facilitate cross-country learning, this Health Policy paper uses an adapted framework to examine the approaches taken by nine high-income countries and regions that have started to ease COVID-19 restrictions: five in the Asia Pacific region (ie, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea) and four in Europe (ie, Germany, Norway, Spain, and the UK). Governments worldwide now face the common challenge of easing lockdowns and restrictions while balancing various health, social, and economic concerns.

However, lockdowns and other extreme restrictions cannot be sustained for the long term in the hope that there will be an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. Many countries have implemented restrictions on population movement to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed some have instituted full or partial lockdowns.

Principle app easing