If you believe that someone died as a result of covid if they had a positive test then got run over by a bus then it was a great success. That is how the stats were fudged, in addition to including many who never had a test who may have died from anything that could possibly be related.
It was a massive, stupid over-reaction. Probably because those in charge knew (despite denying it) that it had been created in a US-funded lab so they feared the worst. It shouldn't have happened in the first place, but it was known from the outset that it was extremely unlikely to be worse than a bit of flu for anyone - i.e. an annoyance for anyone of working age and healthy, potentially a problem for older people and especially for those who like their chips and cakes too much so have already ruined their own health out of choice.
They should have isolated the elderly and vulnerable as well as possible, which would have been imperfect, as is a lockdown, and let everyone else carry on.