As lockdown protests erupt in US, uprisings in other countries have come to a halt

As people continue to protest coronavirus lockdown measures in the United States, civil uprisings have quieted in other countries.

Governments around the world have restricted mass gatherings, and movements in Hong Kong, Delhi and Beirut have halted, according to The New York Times.

Protests in Russia against President Vladimir Putin’s plan to hold a vote on term limits have also been halted due to the pandemic, Quartz reported. In Algeria, the president banned protests due to COVID-19, putting an end to 56 weeks of demonstrations against the country’s political system, according to the outlet.

Hong Kong authorities have also arrested 15 pro-democracy protesters for organizing and participating in protests, according to The New York Times.

“Beijing is determined to end the chaos in Hong Kong once and for all,” Lau Siu-kai, vice president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, told The New York Times.

But that hasn’t stopped protesters from voicing their dissent in other ways. Activists in Chile projected pictures of crowds onto the streets, while medical workers went on strike in Hong Kong to criticize how the government has handled the outbreak, according to The New York Times.

In Brazil, millions of people banged pots while on their balconies to protest the country’s response to the outbreak, Quartz reported. On Facebook Live, about 600,000 people protested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push to close parliament.

“No one jumps on the barricades when they think the barricade might have a virus on it,” Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group, told Quartz. “[Coronavirus is] a deterrent to protest and it may be giving some pretty authoritarian leaders a bit of respite in this context.”

Elsewhere, some have chosen to defy government lockdowns to protest.

As economic conditions worsen, protesters have convened in Mumbai in India and cities in Iraq and Lebanon, The Washington Post reported.

Demonstrators across the U.S., from Michigan to Pennsylvania, have protested state shutdowns.

“I was listening to all these concerns, and I was sick of not doing anything about it,” Madison Elmer, who protested Wisconsin’s stay-at-home order, told USA Today. “There are people suffering on both sides of this.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 9:01 AM with the headline "As lockdown protests erupt in US, uprisings in other countries have come to a halt."