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Volume 28, Number 1—January 2022
Research Letter

Effectiveness of International Travel Controls for Delaying Local Outbreaks of COVID-19

Bingyi Yang, Sheena G. Sullivan, Zhanwei Du, Tim K. Tsang, and Benjamin J. CowlingComments to Author 
Author affiliations: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (B. Yang, Zhanwei Du, T.K. Tsang, B.J. Cowling); University of Melbourne Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (S.G. Sullivan); Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health Limited, Hong Kong (Z. Du, B.J. Cowling)

Main Article

Figure

Association between international travel controls and local coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks in 165 countries, January 1–July 31, 2020. A) Temporal distribution of the international travel controls enacted by the studied countries. Data from (7). B) Distribution of the time between a country’s first COVID-19 case and its enactment of any or of the strongest international travel controls. C, D) Probability of reaching first local peak of COVID-19 cases by the time of implementing any (C) or the strongest (D) international travel controls, estimated by using the Kaplan-Meier survival function. Vertical dashed lines in panels B, C, and D indicate the date that Wuhan, China, underwent lockdown; vertical dotted lines indicate the date that the pandemic was declared.

Figure. Association between international travel controls and local coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks in 165 countries, January 1–July 31, 2020. A) Temporal distribution of the international travel controls enacted by the studied countries. Data from (7). B) Distribution of the time between a country’s first COVID-19 case and its enactment of any or of the strongest international travel controls. C, D) Probability of reaching first local peak of COVID-19 cases by the time of implementing any (C) or the strongest (D) international travel controls, estimated by using the Kaplan-Meier survival function. Vertical dashed lines in panels B, C, and D indicate the date that Wuhan, China, underwent lockdown; vertical dotted lines indicate the date that the pandemic was declared.

Main Article

References
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