Did border closures slow SARS-CoV-2?
Open accessAbstract
Despite the economic, social, and humanitarian costs of border closures, more than 1000 new international border closures were introduced in response to the 2020–2021 pandemic by nearly every country in the world. The objective of this study was to examine whether these border closures reduced the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Prior to 2020, the impacts of border closures on disease spread were largely unknown, and their use as a pandemic policy was advised against by international organizations. We tested whether they were helpful in reducing spread by using matching techniques on our hand-coded COVID Border Accountability Project (COBAP) Team database of international closures, converted to a time-series cross-sectional data format. We controlled for national-level internal movement restrictions (domestic lockdowns) using the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) time-series data. We found no evidence in favor of international border closures, whereas we found a strong association between national-level lockdowns and a reduced spread of SARS-CoV-2 cases. More research must be done to evaluate the byproduct effects of closures versus lockdowns as well as the efficacy of other preventative measures introduced at international borders.
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A 2022 study found no evidence that border closures reduced the spread of COVID-19.
“However, a 2022 study found no evidence that border closures reduced the spread of COVID-19.110”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [110]
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The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
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- Authors
- Shiraef, M. A., Friesen, P., Feddern, L., Weiss, M. A., COBAP Team, Janabi, H. A., Beling, E., Falcone, J., Feddern, L., Hirst, C., Murphy, N., Stifel, E., Straight, E., Tao, D., Tutaj, E., Weiss, M. A., & Shiraef, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Friesen, Paul
- ORCID
- Friesen, Paul
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2022-02-01
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1709-1709
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8807811
- OpenAlex
- W4210415025
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 11
- FWCI
- 8.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Waterloo
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, lockdown, non-pharmaceutical interventions, pandemic policy
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Emigration and Immigration, Humans, Quarantine, Pandemics
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