So in a neighbourhood for 2 weeks cases circulate within it only. People are exposed at the grocery story, at restaurants, etc. Most of the people there are young, maybe a few end up hospitalized but the majority recover. After the 2 weeks are up presymptomatic individuals from the neighbourhood then go back to how things were - some visit elderly relatives, some work in a hospital, etc.
A population doesn't equate to being a race. There are various ways a population can be defined. You've mentioned neighbourhoods - that can be a population.
Some areas are suffering far worse. Poor urban neighbourhoods where POC live in crowded spaces are suffering the most. Maybe not everyone in those neighbourhoods are POC but the majority are, because of socioeconomics.
Close contacts of people who are sick, would need to use common sense, and masks, and distancing, and get preferably get tested before venturing out. That for another two weeks, I guess. Eventually, within weeks not months, it would slow to a halt. Easier to monitor in smaller geographical areas.
That's pretty much already occurring though. Confining people to one neighbourhood for 2 weeks isn't going to prevent it from spreading to the surrounding areas once that 2 weeks is up. On day 12 you get presymptomatic person A at a restaurant who infects people B and C. B and C don't realize they were exposed. On day 15 person B goes back to their job at the hospital in a different neighbourhood, and person C goes to their job at a grocery store in a 3rd neighbourhood. Day 16 B realizes he has symptoms, day 17 person C does, they have already spread it to others.
If they are in places or going to places where the risk of serious illness isn’t high, then it’s less of a worry. Not every case is a worry. Not even every cluster of cases is a worry. And people who are at more serious risk themselves should take more precautions.
It’s going to cause the cases to peter out faster in smaller areas rather than spreading it out further, continuously, though? The further out infected people go, and the more of them that go, the more it spreads, more exponentially.
Sure, it could help in the short term if hospitalization rates are going up or something, depending on how people are getting it and the types of places that's occurring. It's just delaying it short term though. You made it sound like it should be done to shut down for a few weeks and then go back to normal, it's not going to accomplish that.
I know of people who have had it, not people I know directly. My brother in law's boss, an unnamed individual at the company in Calgary I do know people who work there from school/previous jobs.
I think we could get back to normal faster if it was tackled in smaller “chunks” of geographical area. That said, if it becomes lucrative to make “bandaids” the cure could be stalled, it could take second place in the free market, and we’ll be talking about bandaids forever - and I don’t want that to be the new normal. Especially when there are other factors that need addressing to make the vulnerable, less vulnerable, overall.
If you have people associating with each other though, 2 weeks isn't enough time for it to stop in that population. Look at the US - we have shut the border down with them for months, if we were to open it up, I would expect to see cases here increase dramatically. What you're suggesting is just a smaller scale of that.
Not really, because smaller areas could be managed better if only very few exceptions are coming and going from them for a short time. So could contact tracing, without being as invasive as an app. I guess the time could be extended in two week chunks but I really think keeping people in designated areas as long as they have needed amenities in those areas, seems to work. Here, were’re on a big island with several towns and a few cities. We’ve done well. If even smaller regions all behaved like islands this might’ve already almost been completely over by now, if not completely.
It can work for areas that don't already have a problem and don't let many in. It's what's going on in the Eastern provinces. Opening up though opens up to cases. It can also be difficult to keep those who are carrying the virus out. Borders helps, as do geological features. Keeping say Edmonton separate from Calgary? We would need way stricter regulations in general to prevent that crossover.
What's being used there currently?
Why not? People with fatigue syndrome are often looked upon as not wanting to work and making things up- these cases need to be more public so people learn that even if you don’t see an outside injury you might still not be well and able to work. ( Concussions is another example)