Response2covid19, a dataset of governments\u2019 responses to COVID-19 all around the world

Simon Porcher

doi:10.1038/s41597-020-00757-y

Abstract

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, governments all around the world have implemented public health and economic measures to contain the spread of the virus and to support the economy. Public health measures include domestic lockdown, school closures and bans on mass gatherings among others. Economic measures cover wage support, cash transfers, interest rates cuts, tax cuts and delays, and support to exporters or importers. This paper introduces ‘Response2covid19’, a living dataset of governments’ responses to COVID-19. The dataset codes the various policy interventions with their dates at the country-level for more than 200 countries from January 1 to October 1, 2020 and is updated every month. The production of detailed data on the measures taken by governments can help generate robust evidence to support public health and economic decision making.

Highlights

Background & SummaryIn December 2019, a new coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, China and spread to nearly every country in the first quarter of 2020
In the beginning of November 2020, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, there were more than 50.25 million confirmed cases and over 1.25 million deaths linked to the virus
The coding of public health measures is based on cross-country information reported by the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS; https://www.acaps.org/covid19-government-measures-dataset), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA; https://www.idea.int/publications/catalogue/elections-and-covid-19) for elections, the International Monetary Fund (IMF; https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO; https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse) for schools closures

Summary

Introduction

Background & SummaryIn December 2019, a new coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, China and spread to nearly every country in the first quarter of 2020. The coding of public health measures is based on cross-country information reported by the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS; https://www.acaps.org/covid19-government-measures-dataset), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA; https://www.idea.int/publications/catalogue/elections-and-covid-19) for elections, the International Monetary Fund (IMF; https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO; https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse) for schools closures. The IMF tracker lists all the public health measures taken at the country-level and is helpful to cross-check the information provided by ACAPS.

Results

Conclusion