Estimating and explaining cross-country variation in the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions during COVID-19 ...

To control the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as school closures or stay-at-home orders. Previous work has estimated the effectiveness of NPIs, yet without examining variation in NPI effectiveness across countries. Based o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Banholzer, Nicolas, Feuerriegel, Stefan, Vach, Werner
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: ETH Zurich 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000543331
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/543331
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Summary:To control the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as school closures or stay-at-home orders. Previous work has estimated the effectiveness of NPIs, yet without examining variation in NPI effectiveness across countries. Based on data from the first epidemic wave of n=40 countries, we estimate country-specific differences in the effectiveness of NPIs via a semi-mechanistic Bayesian hierarchical model. Our estimates reveal substantial variation between countries, indicating that NPIs have been more effective in some countries (e. g. Switzerland, New Zealand, and Iceland) as compared to others (e. g. Singapore, South Africa, and France). We then explain differences in the effectiveness of NPIs through 12 country characteristics (e. g. population age, urbanization, employment, etc.). A positive association with country-specific effectiveness of NPIs was found for government effectiveness, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, population ... : Scientific Reports, 12 ...