It’s been 4 month’s since we first heard anything about the novel coronavirus, but it’s already just shy of hitting the 1 million mark in terms of positive cases. As governments around the world frantically struggle to flatten the curve in their respective nations, many have resorted to lockdowns in order to stem the movement of their citizens.

As of today, an AFP tally puts the total amount of people being called to stay at home at 3.9 billion. That’s half of the worlds total population! At the time of writing, lockdown measures such as confinement, curfews and quarantines are in place in more than 90 countries and territories around the world.

While the term lockdown may immediately get you thinking about not being able to leave the house at all, in most places, people are still able to get out of the house to make vital purchases, such as food or medicine or to go to work, though residents are encouraged to work from home if possible.

Just like here in Malaysia, most governments are urging residents to stay at home without introducing any sort of strict coercive measures or resorting to violence. Whether it’s advice from the government to stay home or curfews restricting people from leaving the house, the scale of this is unprecedented. It’s crazy to think that just weeks ago, a lockdown like this would’ve been unthinkable in many democracies around the world.

Italy currently leads in terms of death toll with more than 13,000 deaths while the USA is well past the 200,000 mark in terms of confirmed positive cases, making it the country with the most cases in the world. The total number of positive cases worldwide currently stands at 981,221, with 50,230 deaths and 204,605 recoveries.