In early 2020 the world was struck by the epidemic of novel SARS-CoV-2 virus. Like many others, German government has introduced severe contact restrictions to limit the spread of infection. This paper analyses effects of weather on the spread of the disease under the described circumstances. We demonstrate that regions reported lower growth rates of the number of the infection cases after days with higher temperatures, no rain and low humidity. We argue that this effect is channelled through human behaviour. The evidence suggests that “good” weather attracts individuals to outdoor (safer) environments, thus, deterring people from indoor (less safe) environments. Understanding this relationship is important for improving the measures aiming at combating the spread of the virus.
We examine the effectiveness of church service bans in containing the spread of Covid-19 in Germany. We furthermore investigate how differences in the local religious affiliations affect infections and the effectiveness of church bans and other church-related restrictions. We find that, without a ban, infections per capita are higher in districts (Landkreise) with larger shares of religious population. In panel analysis, controlling for district fixed effects and a host of potential confounders, we find that church bans effectively reduce infections. For a ban in place for 14 days before a considered day, the predicted growth factor of infections is lower by 0.9 of its standard deviation. Finally, we show that Easter contributed significantly to the growth of infections in 2020 and 2021. The growth factor of infections was lower in regions with larger shares of Catholics and Protestants during Easter 2020 (when a church ban was in place) but not in 2021 (without a ban).
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