Quarantine

epidemiological intervention of restriction on the movement of people and goods, which is intended to prevent the spread of infectious disease or pests

Quarantine is where animals, people or an area of land are isolated to prevent the spread of disease or pests. Countries often stop animals and plants from being brought in from elsewhere, unless they are known not to carry a disease.

Background

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The word "quarantine" comes from quarantena, the Venetian language meaning "forty days". This is because of the 40-day isolation of ships and people practiced as a measure of disease prevention related to the plague.[1][2]

It is different from medical isolation, which is for people who have been infected with the disease.

The quarantining of people often raises questions of civil rights. Quarantine can have bad psychological effects on the quarantined. These include post-traumatic stress disorder, confusion and anger.[3]

COVID-19

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Self quarantine (or self-isolation) is a term that became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, which spread to most countries in 2020. Citizens were either encouraged or forced by law to stay home to lower the spread of the disease. Some countries went into lockdowns as a form of quarantine.

On 1 April 2020, more than 280 million people, or about 86% of the population, were under some form of lockdown in the United States,[4] 59 million people were in lockdown in South Africa,[5] and 1.3 billion people were in lockdown in India.[6][7]

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References

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  1. Sehdev, Paul S. (2002). "The Origin of Quarantine". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 35 (9): 1071–1072. doi:10.1086/344062. PMID 12398064.
  2. Press, The Associated (24 March 2020). "Croatia's Dubrovnik, Home to Ancient Quarantine Facilities". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  3. Brooks, Samantha K.; Webster, Rebecca K.; Smith, Louise E.; Woodland, Lisa; Wessely, Simon; Greenberg, Neil; Rubin, Gideon James (2020). "The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence". The Lancet. 395 (10227): 912–920. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8. PMC 7158942. PMID 32112714.
  4. "More than 85% of all Americans have been ordered to stay at home. This map shows which cities and states are under lockdown". Business Insider. 1 April 2020.
  5. Chutel, Lynsey; Dahir, Abdi Latif (27 March 2020). "With Most Coronavirus Cases in Africa, South Africa Locks Down". The New York Times.
  6. Nair, Supriya (29 March 2020). "For a billion Indians, lockdown has not prevented tragedy". The Guardian.
  7. "Chaos and hunger amid India coronavirus lockdown". Al-Jazeera. 27 March 2020.

Other websites

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