You are quite right, it's irrational. Mainly government feels that they need to be seen reacting and doing something, anything, after the criticism of earlier actions, to pacify the paranoid and desirous of zero risk. Zero risk can't be achieved but demanding the public do daft things is seen as something even though it smacks of the action of a totalitarian state. So, tug your forelock and comply or the masses will hunt you down, shopkeepers refuse you entry, and the police fine you.