This study quantitatively investigates the effectiveness of China's zero-COVID policy in controlling SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks caused by different variants. Using data from 131 outbreaks between April 2020 and May 2022, the researchers ranked public health measures by their reduction in the instantaneous reproduction number (Rt). Social distancing, face masks, and close contact tracing were the most effective, with social distancing becoming increasingly important as outbreaks persisted. The study also found that highly transmissible variants posed greater challenges to these measures.
Publisher
Nature Communications
Published On
Aug 29, 2023
Authors
Yong Ge, Xilin Wu, Wenbin Zhang, Xiaoli Wang, Dazhi Zhang, ZhiPeng Ren, YanChao Yang, JianHuang Wu, HongYu Liu, Ruibin Wang, Chris R. Williams, Eleanor Currid, Andrew W. Park, David A. T. Cummings, JingZhi Liu, Andrew J. Tatem
Tags
COVID-19
zero-COVID policy
SARS-CoV-2
public health measures
transmissible variants
social distancing
epidemiology
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