[Barraketh]

So since March we've seen multiple countries (Korea, China, New Zealand) largely contain the virus, and start re-opening the economy. The way you do it is to get R<1 (where R is the reproduction number - the average number of people that an infected person infects). When R is smaller than 1, then you have an exponential decay curve, where there are fewer new cases each day.

The way that these countries have been able to get R<1 is a combination of social distancing, hygiene (masks), and test-trace-isolate system. So that's the endgame now. The shelter-in-place orders gets R<1, then we keep it at <1 by getting everyone to wear masks, and by getting a tracing system in place so that anyone who comes in contact with an infected person can quickly get tested and self-isolate.

That at least is my understanding, and it's been largely informed by this webpage, which I found incredibly helpful. https://ncase.me/covid-19/

[SpicyLemonZest]

A lot of people do present that understanding, but it's inaccurate. China and New Zealand don't have an R < 1 strategy; they believe that harsh lockdowns must be maintained until local transmission stops entirely. (Which is obviously infeasible for most countries at this point.)