How this works out in practice is a point I raised on Twitter some time ago, but none of the scholars had anything to say about it, other than that this is what studies say one should do.

It may well be that all the epidemiological text books say that you raise the barrier against the virus and lower it again later, or lower it in one area only, when you have geographical differences in virus presence, and that this should be at county level and city level.

First of all, in practice, many governments don’t care that much about virus presence as an indicator for what to do.

• More importantly, how would this work out for people in practice and how would the differences be communicated to them?

It is hard enough to deal with different rules between different countries, as it turns out.

If you work in DC and live in DC, and have a well-paid job, it obviously does not matter, but what does Joe in Scotland do whose work is just across the border in England? He has to break the regulations in Scotland if his boss in England does not want to know about that and insists he comes to work.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52632829