Assessing Public Health and Social Measures Against COVID-19 in Japan From March to June 2021.
Front Med (Lausanne)
; 9: 937732, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2099171
ABSTRACT
Background:
Public health and social measures (PHSM) against COVID-19 in Japan involve requesting the public to voluntarily reduce social contact; these measures are not legally binding. The effectiveness of such PHSM has been questioned with emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), which exhibited elevated transmissibility. Materials andMethods:
We investigated the epidemic dynamics during the fourth epidemic wave in Japan from March to June 2021 involving pre-emergency measures and declaration of a state of emergency (SoE). We estimated the effective reproduction number (R t ) before and after these interventions, and then analyzed the relationship between lower R t values and each PHSM.Results:
With implementation of pre-emergency measures (PEM) in 16 prefectures, the R t was estimated to be < 1 in six prefectures; its average relative reduction ranged from 2 to 19%. During the SoE, 8 of 10 prefectures had an estimated R t < 1, and the average relative reduction was 26%-39%. No single intervention was identified that uniquely resulted in an R t value < 1.Conclusion:
An SoE can substantially reduce the R t and may be required to curb a surge in cases caused by future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern with elevated transmissibility. More customized interventions did not reduce the R t value to < 1 in this study, but that may be partly attributable to the greater transmissibility of the Alpha variant.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Topics:
Variants
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Med (Lausanne)
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Fmed.2022.937732
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