Emergency Action Averted Over 500M COVID-19 Infections

June 12, 2020

Emergency health measures implemented in six major countries have “significantly and substantially slowed” the spread of COVID-19, according to research from a University of California Berkeley team published in the journal Nature. 

In the first peer-reviewed analysis of local, regional and national policies, the researchers found that travel restrictions, business and school closures, shelter-in-place orders and other non-pharmaceutical interventions averted about 530 million COVID-19 infections across the U.S., China, Italy, France, Iran and South Korea in the study period ending April 6. Of these infections, 62 million would likely have been confirmed cases, given limited testing in each country. In the U.S. alone, the study indicates emergency measures averted 4.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 60 million total cases.