The impact of containment policy and mobility on COVID-19 cases through structural equation model in Chile, Singapore, South Korea and Israel

Jun Jiao; Leiyu Shi; Manfei Yang; Junyan Yang; Meiheng Liu; Gang Sun

doi:10.7717/peerj.15769

The impact of containment policy and mobility on COVID-19 cases through structural equation model in Chile, Singapore, South Korea and Israel

PeerJ. 2023 Aug 1:11:e15769. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15769. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jun Jiao^{1

2}, Leiyu Shi³, Manfei Yang¹, Junyan Yang¹, Meiheng Liu¹, Gang Sun^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Management, School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
² School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States of America.

Abstract

Objectives: The study aims to understand the impact of containment policy and mobility on COVID-19 cases in Chile, Singapore, South Korea and Israel. To provide experience in epidemic prevention and control.

Methods: Structural equation modeling (SEM) of containment policies, mobility, and COVID-19 cases were used to test and analyze the proposed hypotheses.

Results: Chile, Israel and Singapore adopted containment strategies, focusing on closure measures. South Korea adopted a mitigation strategy with fewer closure measures, focusing on vaccination and severe case management. There was a significant negative relationship among containment policies, mobility, and COVID-19 cases.

Conclusion: To control the COVID-19 and slow down the increase of COVID-19 cases, countries can increase the stringency of containment policies when COVID-19 epidemic is more severe. Thus, countries can take measures from the following three aspects: strengthen the risk monitoring, and keep abreast of the COVID-19 risk; adjust closure measures in time and reduce mobility; and strengthen public education on COVID-19 prevention to motivate citizen to consciously adhere to preventive measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; Containment policies; Mobility; Structural equation modeling.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Chile / epidemiology
Humans
Israel / epidemiology
Policy
Republic of Korea / epidemiology
Singapore / epidemiology

Grants and funding

The authors received financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province in 2022: Construction and application of COVID-19 control model PSR-SOR-Haddon in Guangdong Province (No. 2022A1515011112). The Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Guangdong Province in 2023: Research on the mechanism of national voluntary epidemic prevention behavior based on Repast-fsQCA in the context of COVID-19 ”Class B and B control” (No. GD23CGL11) provided funding for the APC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.