In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
A leaked document from Belgium’s lockdown strategy taskforce shows experts are weighing easing social distancing measures to allow groups of up to 10 people to meet up, one night a week. They have a caveat — it needs to be the same 10 people every time.
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In Denmark, schools for children under 12 have reopened, with stipulations that the kids be split into sections in the schoolyard with the help of tape, sit two metres apart from each other in classrooms, and wash their hands every two hours.
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In the city of Bogotá, Colombia is organizing the easing of lockdowns by gender, allowing men to step out on certain days of the week, and women on the others. The mayor has also assured the city’s transgender population that they’ll be able to step out on days corresponding to the gender they identify with, and not the one associated to the sex assigned to them at birth.
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In Serbia, pet owners could take advantage of a designated dog-walking period of 20 minutes — until the government revoked the freedom, eliciting widespread outrage from Serbians.
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In Chile, the government has started issuing “immunity passports” to people who have recovered from the novel coronavirus, as a literal get out of jail free card aimed at enabling recovered patients to break lockdown and go back to work.
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Turkey is trying out an alternate, more relaxed lockdown strategy in which people under the age of 20 and over the age of 65 are not allowed out during the week, while everybody else is technically free to step out. Over the weekend, the government is making lockdown stricter, imposing a 48-hour complete shut-in.
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In Belarus, people are acting as if nothing has happened. The Belarusian President is using worldwide lockdowns as an opportunity to bolster sports in the country, hoping the once-neglected soccer and ice hockey teams in the country — on full display in stadiums alongside scores of spectators — can get their five seconds of fame while the world sits at home.
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In an attempt to ensure people adhere to social distancing measures, Australia is deploying pandemic drones that can detect temperatures of people below, and single out who is coughing or sneezing in crowds.
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Sweden is boasting about just how much it trusts its population. While gatherings of more than 50 people are banned, the Swedish government is basically letting the Swedes decide their fate, trusting they’ll do the right thing and maintain social distance.
