As the global North’s economy is gradually reopening and returning to stability, our government is also beginning to consider ending its lockdown strategy in the South after 670 days. But these decisions in two separate hemispheres are driven by different reasons.

In the North, vaccination programmes have covered more than 70% of the population. Levels of infection, hospitalisation, and death have declined drastically over the past six months. As a result, the focus in this region is to reactivate trade and put people back to work as soon as possible...