Mobility restrictions seem to be an effective strategy to control the coronavirus disease pandemic and leads to plummeting transmission, according to the latest study.
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| Photo: Mobility Restrictions | InStyleHealth |
The data regarding COVID-19 mortality were sourced
from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centers for Disease
Control, while data for mobility were obtained from Apple and Google, which
gathered movement or mobility information from mapping apps. There were 52
countries that had sufficient epidemiological and mobility data and were
included in the analytical study.
Generally, the median mobility across all countries
was lowest on 11th March 2020, during which the mobility was 63
percent lower than the established baseline. In turn, the virus’ effective reproduction
number significantly declined, according to the statistical models. This was
also true for the estimated reproduction number of fatalities.
Remarkably, by the second half of May 2020, there was
a slight dissociating of mobility and transmissibility. As movement started to
gradually increase, so did the transmissibility, but at a slower pace than
anticipated.
The researchers wanted to determine mobility
thresholds that could retain the virus’ reproduction number below 1.0. Researchers
discovered that, at least in the UK, an initial 43 percent mobility reduction
would be required, however, after considering other social distancing behaviors,
the threshold could be as low as 18 percent. The values varied largely for the different
nations being assessed in the study.
“We found strong evidence that the relationship
between mobility and transmissibility changed over time, typically, a dampening
indicating that smaller reductions in mobility can result in epidemic control
likely due to other social distancing behaviors,” according to researchers.
The researches also added, “As many countries are
re-imposing social-distancing policies, our analysis illustrates that sustainable
relaxation of population-wide social-distancing measures should be undertaken
very carefully and replaced with equally effective control measures, such as
thorough contact-tracing.”