The lockdown will remain at least until v0.20, possibly beyond.
The current explore content is something that is by design played during the dead time of the earlier part of the game. So it is considered early game content and acts as a way to introduce the player to the world.
But with Lin's event in v0.19, the world will change drastically. So the plan is to create a new set of Explore content to introduce the player to the new world. But this won't happen until the current Explore content is finished, which it mostly is by now. Maybe 80%