Thread by @MackayIM

Just a few examples of to highlight that every country (also varies *within* countries) has it's own story when it comes to #COVID19
Most graphs from ourworldindata.org

Not everywhere has comprehensive contact tracing. Tracing means you can keep confirmed cases away from susceptible people & to track down and interrupt transmission chains.
Physical distance is the number 1 most useful way to starve a virus of its ability to spread.

Plenty of locations can't/don't test enough. Without testing-no idea how much virus is in your community or who has it. The, interrupting transmission then *needs* a hammer not a scalpel. With enough testing, a more surgical approach can be take (see recent egs-NZ & Aust)

The proportion of tests that come back as positive highlights countries where a lot of tested illness is due to COVID-19. This can be affected by testing policies (not enough testing so denominator is too small) but also by whether the epidemic is in/out of control

Number of tests conducted for every positive found adds to this list-shows which countries are seriously looking to hunt down cases to test, contact trace & quarantine/isolate so as to break transmission chains within their borders. This lets life inside go back to #COVIDnormal

Within Australia the patterns vary but only one States i currently under a "lockdown". The rest have limits of gatherings but can shop, move around within their State (varying restrictions *between* borders), go to school, eat out.
theguardian.com/australia-news…