Page - 323 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

323How Should We Allocate Health and Social Resources During a Pandemic? ing cases were being reported in various countries such as Iran and Spain, the Italian government decided to adopt China’s contain-and- control approach on a large scale by implementing quarantines around various regions. On March 9, Italy then implemented a nationwide lockdown.15 Perhaps the rising number of deaths, and uncertainty of transmission rates and case fatality rates, moved the Italians to err on the side of precaution. Plus, infectious epidemiological models and modelling at this time began to gain traction in public and policy dis- cussions.16 Perhaps, guided by China and Italy precedents, as well as by these modelling exercises, by the end of March, the majority of countries worldwide had implemented some form of border closure and national lockdowns.17 So far in human history, the contain-and-control approach has primarily been used in relation to individuals or small geographical areas. Nationwide lockdowns—unknown until now—are first and foremost meant to reduce social interactions. Citizens and people were told to work from home, public gatherings were not allowed, and universities and schools were asked to move classes online. It was clear that health care workers had to move in the opposite direc- tion. As many as possible were asked to work in hospitals and new field hospitals being built. Beyond health care workers, countries also began to identify certain groups of workers as essential and required to work during the lockdowns. These included those in education and child care, transportation, justice and safety, public utilities, food and essential goods, and so forth. However, it became clear that health care workers were also becoming sick and dying at higher rates from hospital exposures. And many of these other essential workers faced frequent social interactions in their jobs. In addition to bearing a higher burden of risk of infection and death, many of these essen- tial jobs are low paying and often done by people lower down on 2020), online: <www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/business/china-coronavirus-sur- veillance.html>. 15. William Feuer, “Italy Expands its Quarantine to the Entire Country as Coronavirus Cases and Deaths Surge”, CNBC (9 March 2020), online: <www. cnbc.com/2020/03/09/italy-extends-its-quarantine-to-the-entire-country-pm- asks-residents-to-stay-at-home.html>. 16. David Adam, “Special Report: The Simulations Driving the World’s Response to COVID-19” (2020) 580:7803 Nature 316. 17. University of Oxford, Blavatnik School of Government, “Coronavirus Government Response Tracker” (2020), online: University  of  Oxford  <www.bsg. ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirus-government-response-tracker>.