Life on lockdown

Student halls across the UK are being put into lockdown, leaving thousands of freshers cooped up in box rooms, isolated from family, and watching sub-par online lectures. We go inside Manchester Metropolitan, one of the universities worst affected by the crisis, in search of signs of life – and of protest.

Denmark was the first European country to reopen schools. And downtown Copenhagen is full of people once again allowed to go to the pubs (remember those?). But was the success of Danish social isolation partly achieved by a troubling form of national isolation?

The claims that it’s beaten Covid-19 might not be entirely accurate, but New Zealand is one of the first countries to start easing lockdown. Is there dancing – or even just socialising – in the streets? Not quite…

Two hundred working hospital beds. Fifteen per cent unemployment. Poverty rates that only the privileged could ignore. Tunisia is stable, but it’s still under lockdown.

A cancelled new year festival. Idling pad thai vendors and tuk tuk drivers. Deserted bars and massage parlours. No tourists. For one teenage resident, Thailand’s capital is a ghost of its vibrant former self.

Cannabis café closures. Designated social areas in public parks. Police patrolling on bikes and boats and hefty fines for breaking the rules. Georgia Boal-Russell – the newly self-titled “Erin Brockovich of hygiene” – reports from The Netherlands.