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COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries introduced early evening curfews. Several studies try to measure the effectiveness of such measures across different countries, but disentangling competing effects can be elusive. We examined the impact of an early evening curfew on mobility by studying a...

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Autores principales: Velias, Alina, Georganas, Sotiris, Vandoros, Sotiris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8588835/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34823131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114538
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author Velias, Alina
Georganas, Sotiris
Vandoros, Sotiris
author_facet Velias, Alina
Georganas, Sotiris
Vandoros, Sotiris
author_sort Velias, Alina
collection PubMed
description During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries introduced early evening curfews. Several studies try to measure the effectiveness of such measures across different countries, but disentangling competing effects can be elusive. We examined the impact of an early evening curfew on mobility by studying a shift in curfews from 9pm to 6pm in Greece using Google mobility data. We followed a difference-in-differences (DiD) econometric approach, where we compared trends in mobility in residential spaces as well as groceries and pharmacies, before and after the introduction of the 6pm curfew in Attica with trends in three other comparable Regions. We found little or no evidence of an effect of the early curfew on daily mobility relating to groceries and pharmacies, and that an 18.75% reduction in hours where people were allowed to leave home led to a relatively small increase in time spent in residential spaces. This less-than-proportionate reduction in mobility outside the household suggests a possibility that the curfew led to more people coinciding in indoor public spaces, such as grocery shops – which constitutes a contagion risk factor. Results should be treated with caution, especially with regards to the magnitude of any effect, as Google mobility data do not report the time of the day, so the time density of activities cannot be estimated. Lockdowns and other measures are necessary to tackle Covid-19, but it is important to avoid substitution by activities that contribute further to spreading the virus. Interventions should therefore be based on a thorough analysis of human behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-85888352021-11-12 COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility Velias, Alina Georganas, Sotiris Vandoros, Sotiris Soc Sci Med Article During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries introduced early evening curfews. Several studies try to measure the effectiveness of such measures across different countries, but disentangling competing effects can be elusive. We examined the impact of an early evening curfew on mobility by studying a shift in curfews from 9pm to 6pm in Greece using Google mobility data. We followed a difference-in-differences (DiD) econometric approach, where we compared trends in mobility in residential spaces as well as groceries and pharmacies, before and after the introduction of the 6pm curfew in Attica with trends in three other comparable Regions. We found little or no evidence of an effect of the early curfew on daily mobility relating to groceries and pharmacies, and that an 18.75% reduction in hours where people were allowed to leave home led to a relatively small increase in time spent in residential spaces. This less-than-proportionate reduction in mobility outside the household suggests a possibility that the curfew led to more people coinciding in indoor public spaces, such as grocery shops – which constitutes a contagion risk factor. Results should be treated with caution, especially with regards to the magnitude of any effect, as Google mobility data do not report the time of the day, so the time density of activities cannot be estimated. Lockdowns and other measures are necessary to tackle Covid-19, but it is important to avoid substitution by activities that contribute further to spreading the virus. Interventions should therefore be based on a thorough analysis of human behaviour. Elsevier Ltd. 2022-01 2021-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8588835/ /pubmed/34823131 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114538 Text en © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Velias, Alina
Georganas, Sotiris
Vandoros, Sotiris
COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title_full COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title_fullStr COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title_short COVID-19: Early evening curfews and mobility
title_sort covid-19: early evening curfews and mobility
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8588835/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34823131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114538
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