I think allowing for funerals of 50 people is a mistake. It's likely to cost hundreds of lives in the coming months.
The ban on alcohol is creating an interesting situation where hospital admission for alcohol related injuries are down significantly, which is probably why they banned it. I just hope that illegal sales can be kept down long enough for the virus to be contained.
Regarding the cigarette ban, I think it's the wiser thing to do. The smoke particles may result in the disease carrying further. Given that many people have no choice but to inhale second hand smoke from their neighbours, family and other people who live close by, it's a reasonable sacrifice that those people need to make. The is no ban on nicotine patches and similar treatments that won't put other people at risk.
Regarding the use of public spaces or exercise and dog walking, we should remember that we don't all live in suburbs, the majority of citizens live in dense urban settings. Its probably also a case of making the rules enforceable for the limited law enforcement resources we have. Its likely also what is contributing to the dramatically reduced crime rate.
There is so much about this disease that we do not know yet. Until we know otherwise, we should assume the worst. We also should be careful of comparing our measures with the US and Europe. We have a vastly different situation.
We can however learn from how the US federal government has botched their response. Despite all their resources, they are likely to end up having the highest death rate per capita in the world. I mean, they have governors in certain states that are encouraging people to pack the churches for Easter.
Our measures are significantly more lenient compared to China, the Philippines and Hong Kong.
