The week the walls went up

It's every nation for itself as governments around the world scramble to come up with a health response and economic plan to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Responses from global leaders to the health crisis have varied wildly. Illustration: David Rowe

Hans van Leeuwen, Jacob Greber, Michael Smith and Emma Connors

Mar 28, 2020 – 12.00am

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Curfews, lockdowns and calls to patriotism are being used to help slow the spread of COVID-19. India has asked 1.3 billion people to stay at home for three weeks, Spain may well take over Italy as the new ground zero of the crisis and China has closed its gates to the rest of the world in a bid to insulate itself from a global pandemic that was once a domestic problem.

Government approaches vary dramatically. Britain has changed course, adopting a whatever-it-takes mentality to shield the health system from a tsunami; Sweden is taking a more lax approach; Indonesia is resisting calls for a lockdown; and Donald Trump has hinted the US shutdown may be shortlived. Leaders are making life-and-death decisions. Not all of them will pass the test.

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Hans van LeeuwenJournalistHans van Leeuwen is The Australian Financial Review’s former Europe correspondent. He is now International Economy editor for The Telegraph UK.

Jacob GreberSenior correspondentJacob Greber was The Australian Financial Review’s senior political correspondent.

Michael SmithHealth editorMichael Smith is the health editor for The Australian Financial Review. He is based in Sydney.

Emma ConnorsSenior editor and writerEmma Connors was South-east Asia correspondent from October 2019 until mid-2023, based in Jakarta and Singapore. She has previously edited Perspective and Opinion and has written extensively across the AFR and related titles.