Timing matters: the impact of response measures on COVID-19-related hospitalization and death rates in Germany and Switzerland

Huber, Martin; Langen, Henrika

doi:10.1186/s41937-020-00054-w

Cited by 37 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Similarly, in Europe, Switzerland and Germany had low fatality rate, and both countries applied high number of these indicators. 24 However, countries such Spain and Italy also applied high numbers of indicators but still had high mortality rates. This might be due to late application or lack seriousness in applying these indicators by these countries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are countries’ precautionary actions against COVID-19 effective? An assessment study of 175 countries worldwide

Alshammari

Alenzi

Alnofal

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many countries negatively, particularly in terms of their health care and financial systems. Numerous countries have attempted to employ precautions to address this pandemic. Objective This study was aimed at exploring and assessing the precautionary actions taken by 175 countries on six continents to prevent the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Methods An observational study was conducted based on data collected during the period from December 31, 2019, until the end of April 2020. Several data were extracted, including information related to the date of the first reported case of SARS-CoV-2, total confirmed cases, total active cases, and more. In addition, seven validated indicators were used to assess the countries preparedness and precautionary actions. Results A total of 175 countries were included in the study. The total COVID-19 infection rate increased exponentially and rapidly in North America and Europe from March to April. The application of the precautions (indicators) varied between countries. School closures, quarantines and curfews were the most applied indicators among all countries. As for the relationship between the indicators and their effects on the infection rate, Italy and Spain were the top countries in Europe and adopted all indicators. Nevertheless, they faced high infection rates: 239,639 and 205,463 COVID-19 cases in Spain, and Italy, respectively. Conclusion The precautionary actions might have played a role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in several countries. However, many countries did not benefit from applying these indicators.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are countries’ precautionary actions against COVID-19 effective? An assessment study of 175 countries worldwide

Alshammari

Alenzi

Alnofal

et al. 2020

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Indeed, we have been able to observe exemplary responses from some Asian countries (i.e., China 5 , South Korea 6 , and Singapore 7 ), some highly aggressive responses in Europe (i.e., Germany and Switzerland 8 ), and several delayed or not so effective responses from other regions (i.e., USA, England, Italy and Spain) 9 , 10 . At this point, some territories in Latin America (i.e., México) are just experiencing a second “exponential phase” of the COVID-19 pandemic at home and do not appear having yet implemented proper containment measures as rapidly as needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…By the second week of March, stringent measures of social distancing were imposed in NYC 46 . Social distancing has been regarded as the one of the most effective buffering measures for local COVID-19 epidemics 8 , 47 , 48 . The evaluation of social distancing was straightforward.…”

Section: Validation and Predictions: Effect Of Social Distancing And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling COVID-19 epidemics in an Excel spreadsheet to enable first-hand accurate predictions of the pandemic evolution in urban areas

Álvarez

Gonzalez‐González

Santiago

2021

Sci Rep

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COVID-19, the first pandemic of this decade and the second in less than 15 years, has harshly taught us that viral diseases do not recognize boundaries; however, they truly do discriminate between aggressive and mediocre containment responses. We present a simple epidemiological model that is amenable to implementation in Excel spreadsheets and sufficiently accurate to reproduce observed data on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemics in different regions [i.e., New York City (NYC), South Korea, Mexico City]. We show that the model can be adapted to closely follow the evolution of COVID-19 in any large city by simply adjusting parameters related to demographic conditions and aggressiveness of the response from a society/government to epidemics. Moreover, we show that this simple epidemiological simulator can be used to assess the efficacy of the response of a government/society to an outbreak. The simplicity and accuracy of this model will greatly contribute to democratizing the availability of knowledge in societies regarding the extent of an epidemic event and the efficacy of a governmental response.

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“…Finally, Huber and Langen (2020) study the effect of mitigating public health measures on cumulative Covid-related hospitalization and death rates in Germany and Switzerland. For effect identification, the study exploits the fact that the epidemic was more advanced in some regions than in others when certain lockdown measures came into force.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Covid-19 containment effects of public health measures - A spatial difference-in-differences approach

Kosfeld

Mitze

Rode

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Since mid-March 2020 the Federal and state governments in Germany agreed on comprehensive public health measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. We study the effects of the policy actions on the progression of the pandemic in the first containment period in spring 2020 before easing of measures have started to work by the end of April. To exploit both the time and spatial dimension in the dissemination of the virus, we conduct a spatial data panel analysis for German NUTS-3 regions. Specifically, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences approach to identify the effects of individual public health measures. We find that contact restrictions and closure of schools substantially contributed to flattening the infection curve. Additionally, a strong treatment effect of wearing face masks is established in the few treated regions during the containment phase. No incremental effect is evidenced for closure of establishments and shutdown of shopping malls and other stores. These findings prove to be highly robust to changes in model specification. By contrast, the dampening effect of restaurant closure is sensitive to model variation.

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Timing matters: the impact of response measures on COVID-19-related hospitalization and death rates in Germany and Switzerland

Cited by 37 publications

References 28 publications

Are countries’ precautionary actions against COVID-19 effective? An assessment study of 175 countries worldwide

Are countries’ precautionary actions against COVID-19 effective? An assessment study of 175 countries worldwide

Modeling COVID-19 epidemics in an Excel spreadsheet to enable first-hand accurate predictions of the pandemic evolution in urban areas

The Covid-19 containment effects of public health measures - A spatial difference-in-differences approach

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