Well for one thing, they could’ve lifted lockdown without doing away with the other precautions like social distancing, mask wearing, contact tracing.
I don’t know about you, but I would’ve been happy just to have everything opened. Those precautions were merely annoying, I could live with them and would’ve welcomed them if it meant we could really effectively “live with Covid” and not have to go back to lockdown because we could better manage the situation.