Open AccessMobility Restrictions and the Control of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Charles Perrings,
Baltazar Espinoza
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
ecology, economy and society--the insee journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2581-6152
pISSN - 2581-6101
DOI - 10.37773/ees.v4i1.344
Subject(s) - covid-19 , pandemic , control (management) , public health , demographic economics , business , disease , medicine , economics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virology , outbreak , nursing , management , pathology
A recent study on the impact of mobility controls on the final size of epidemics by Espinoza, Castillo-Chavez, and Perrings (2020) found that mobility restrictions between areas experiencing different levels of disease risk and with different public health infrastructures do not always reduce the final epidemic size. Indeed, restrictions on the mobility of people from high-risk to low-risk areas can increase, not reduce, the total number of infections. Since the first response of many countries to the COVID-19 pandemic was to implement mobility restrictions, it is worth bearing in mind the implications of the Espinoza result when considering the effectiveness of such restrictions.