Almost all countries and territories affected with COVID-19 have...

Almost all countries and territories affected with COVID-19 have introduced and enforced some form of lockdown. However, a few exceptions include South Korea and Taiwan, which rapidly and consistently implemented highly organized mass testing, contact tracing, public messaging and selective quarantining to identify and isolate outbreaks.^[837][838] Korea's K-Quarantine system has been praised in international media for its effectiveness.^[839][840] Another exception in Asia is Japan.^[841] Authorities in Tokyo have advised businesses to close and for the population to stay at home, but do not have legal authority to enforce a lockdown or penalise non-compliance. Compliance with advice has nevertheless been high.^[842][843]

In the European Union, the sole nation not following this strategy is Sweden.^[844] Measures in Sweden included the closing of universities and high schools and asking older and at-risk residents to avoid social contact, while keeping restaurants, primary schools and kindergartens open.^[845] However, in early 2021 new laws permitting lockdown were enacted and Prime Minister Stefan Löfven warned that a lockdown was being considered.^[47][48]

As of July 2021, a national lockdown has not been announced. However certain regions of Sweden have declared their own lockdowns to help slow the rate of infection. The region of Uppsala reported 908 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period compared to a national average of 772 in early April 2021. This caused the Health Chief of the region, Mikael Köhler, to ask individuals within the region to "act as if they were in a personal lockdown."^[846]

Some of the few countries that did not enact lockdowns during 2020 were forced to later in the pandemic. In Malawi, a proposed lockdown by the government was delayed by the High Court throughout 2020,^[847] until a state of emergency was declared and the country entered a lockdown in January 2021 in response to a worsening outbreak.^[848] Although Cambodia restricted movement within the country during a period in 2020,^[849] it introduced its first major restrictions, including a curfew and later a stay-at-home order in the capital Phnom Penh, during its largest outbreak to date in early 2021.^{[850][851][852][498]} East Timor also enacted its first lockdown of its capital Dili in March 2021^[853] and Turkey entered its first nationwide lockdown in April 2021. The tight restrictions enforced in Turkey caused the UEFA Champions League Final 2021 between Manchester City FC and Chelsea FC which was originally scheduled to feature in Istanbul, to be moved to Porto, Portugal.^{[854][855][856]}

In the United States and Brazil, a handful of states have not introduced any lockdown-type measures (commonly known as "stay-at-home orders").^[857][858]

All roads lead to lockdowns or a different worded lockdown.