Stay-at-home order
A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order – also referred to by loose use of the terms quarantine, isolation, or lockdown – is an order from a government authority that restricts movements of a population as a mass quarantine strategy for suppressing or mitigating an epidemic or pandemic by ordering residents to stay home except for essential tasks or for work in essential businesses. The medical distinction between such an order and a quarantine is that a quarantine is usually understood to involve isolating only selected people who are considered to be possibly infectious rather than the entire population of an area (though many colloquially refer to stay-at-home orders as quarantines). In many cases, outdoor activities are allowed. Non-essential businesses are either closed or adapted to remote work.[1] In some regions, it has been implemented as a round-the-clock curfew[2] or called a shelter-in-place order,[3] but it is not to be confused with a shelter-in-place situation.[4]
For stay-at-home orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic, see COVID-19 lockdowns.Similar measures have been used around the world, and, both officially and colloquially, different names have been used to refer to them, often only very loosely linked to the term's actual medical meaning. Examples include confinement, (self-) isolation, (self-) quarantine, lockdown or ‘strict social distancing measures’.[5] Stay-at-home orders have colloquially (and sometimes officially) been referred to as quarantine or lockdown – but some officials have a concern that the word lockdown may send a wrong message for people to incorrectly think that it includes door-to-door searching for infected people to be forced into quarantines similar to the Hubei lockdown.[6]
Legal matters[edit]
United Kingdom[edit]
The House of Commons laws which restricted movement and gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom were known as "lockdown laws". As health is mostly devolved, lockdown laws can differ between the nations of the UK.[31] Lockdown regulations were made as emergency laws, powers passed onto the government by existing public health laws.[32]
United States[edit]
In the United States, United States constitutional law gives police power to the states. State governments can use this power within their own state. However, there is no clear authority for either the federal government or state governments to impose a lockdown between states. In term of legality of an order, the government must be able to prove that the order advances a "compelling government interest" and the actions are narrow enough to specifically achieve that goal and they are not unnecessarily broad.[33]
Scope[edit]
The scope of lockdowns or stay-at-home orders can vary.[8] There is no universal definition of what is deemed essential. Some orders allow residents to come out for outdoor activities. When residents come out of the house, the social distancing rules are typically applied. Some examples of essential services are banks, gas stations, grocery stores, medical offices, pharmacies, and restaurants (without dining in).[1]
In more restrictive measures in some locations, they require residents to carry paperwork (i.e., appropriate proof of qualifications) in order to go out and perform essential tasks (i.e., supply chain infrastructure, food delivery, healthcare, law enforcement, etc.).[8][33][34]
Exceptions[edit]
Most orders that restrict citizens from leaving their homes grants exceptions to certain persons or for certain situations that are available to all or most members of the population.
Some of the exceptions that allow citizens to leave their homes include work, often limited to essential jobs, grocery shopping, certain types of errands, medical care, or dog walking. Some places have allowed leaving home for certain types of outdoor exercise and recreation and gatherings with limited numbers of people. Some places allow departure from one’s home for any reason provided one does not establish close contact with others from outside their household or beyond the limited numbers of people the jurisdiction permits.
When such exceptions are allowed, restrictions could be in place regarding the distance one can travel from their home or the hours one can leave home.