Effective public health measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review

Abstract

Background In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was recognized in Wuhan, China. It was characterised by rapid spread causing a pandemic. Multiple public health interventions have been implemented worldwide to decrease the transmission of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the implemented public health interventions to control the spread of the outbreak of COVID-19. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Science Direct and MedRxiv for relevant articles published in English up to March 16, 2021. We included quasi experimental studies, clinical trials, cohort studies, longitudinal studies, case-control studies and interrupted time series. We included the studies that investigated the effect of the implemented public health measures to prevent and control the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Results The database search using the predefined combinations of Mesh terms found 13,497 studies of which 3595 in PubMed, 7393 in Science Direct 2509 preprints in MedRxiv. After removal of the duplicates and the critical reading only 18 articles were included in this systematic review and processed for data extraction. Conclusions Public health interventions and non-pharmaceutical measurements were effective in decreasing the transmission of COVID-19. The included studies showed that travel restrictions, borders measures, quarantine of travellers arriving from affected countries, city lockdown, restrictions of mass gathering, isolation and quarantine of confirmed cases and close contacts, social distancing measures, compulsory mask wearing, contact tracing and testing, school closures and personal protective equipment use among health workers were effective in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

Does high COVID-19 spread impact neighbouring countries? Quasi-experimental evidence from the first year of the pandemic in Ireland

“…Our results complement and extend prior research on factors associated with COVID-19 spread 2,7,29,31,32,44, 45 . In particular, they complement findings elsewhere on the importance of regional and international co-ordination [46][47][48][49] . Associations between population density and social class, and the number of COVID-19 cases, are consistent with those results elsewhere.…”

A data-driven model for COVID-19 pandemic – Evolution of the attack rate and prognosis for Brazil

“…The resulting disease caused until the present day more than four million deaths in the whole world, with a reported number of 190 million cases [2] . Waves of the pandemic occurred at different moments of time and in all countries, prompting mitigation measures, that were widely adopted, such as social distancing and mask wearing [3] . During the year of 2020 a few vaccines were developed and approved, with only a small number of countries having vaccinated a significant part of the population [4] .…”

Complex correlates of Colombia's COVID-19 surge

“…Throughout 2020, prior to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, nations worldwide resorted to using nonpharmacological interventions (NPIs)—population-level policy measures—to curtail the spread of COVID. [9] Such blunt-force measures demonstrably reduced transmission. [9] Colombia first imposed nationwide “quarantine” measures on March 25, 2020.…”

“… [9] Such blunt-force measures demonstrably reduced transmission. [9] Colombia first imposed nationwide “quarantine” measures on March 25, 2020. These included school and workplace closures, cancellation of public events, restrictions on gatherings, public transportation shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, internal travel restrictions, international travel controls and border closures, and public information campaigns.…”