I wouldn't be ok with intermittent anymore than I would indefinite. The consequences are around with both. It's not about giving people a break, it's about how those breaks will fracture or crush various aspects of our society.
**"You" in the below comments are in the frame of general "You"
You, as a person, may be ok with saying for the next 3 or 4 weeks I limit my outtings to more essential style places, but a business cannot reasonably function under such structure where they would be forced to close for a time, then reopen, furlough their workers or straight up let them go completely.
You, as a person, may be ok with homeschooling your child for several weeks, but our education system is not set up that way (remember all the issues places had about internet access much less parental aid in schooling).
You, as a person, may be ok with not being in close physical contact with your family for a time, but our social construct is not set up that way for us all to do to that up and down. We talk about depression rates and suicidal thoughts and how tough it is for some people vunerable to this or put in a position to do so, take a person who gets that contact and then is told we're taking the rug out from under your for a while..don't worry you'll get it back..then you do the same thing up and down.
To me neither is an acceptable in terms when thinking about how we formulate our processes future thinking (as in this year, next year and the years after that). But that's purely my opinion.