Effective public health measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Background: In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was recognized in Wuhan, China. It was characterised by rapid spread causing a pandemic. Multiple public health interventions have been implemented worldwide to decrease the transmission of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the implemented public health interventions to control the spread of the outbreak of COVID-19. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Science Direct and MedRxiv for relevant articles published in English up to March 16, 2021. We included quasi experimental studies, clinical trials, cohort studies, longitudinal studies, case-control studies and interrupted time series. We included the studies that investigated the effect of the implemented public health measures to prevent and control the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Results: The database search using the predefined combinations of Mesh terms found 13,497 studies of which 3595 in PubMed, 7393 in Science Direct 2509 preprints in MedRxiv. After removal of the duplicates and the critical reading only 18 articles were included in this systematic review and processed for data extraction. Conclusions: Public health interventions and non-pharmaceutical measurements were effective in decreasing the transmission of COVID-19. The included studies showed that travel restrictions, borders measures, quarantine of travellers arriving from affected countries, city lockdown, restrictions of mass gathering, isolation and quarantine of confirmed cases and close contacts, social distancing measures, compulsory mask wearing, contact tracing and testing, school closures and personal protective equipment use among health workers were effective in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
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Intensive contact tracing, isolation of infected people, and a range of public health and social measures can reduce the effective reproduction number below 1, causing the epidemic to decline.
“With intensive contact tracing and the isolation of infected individuals, in addition to the implementation of a range of public health and social measures,21 the effective reproduction rate can be reduced to less than 1, and the epidemic will decline.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [21]
Identifying cases and then tracing contacts and isolating or quarantining them can slow and reduce transmission.
“Case identification followed by contact tracing and isolation or quarantine can slow and reduce transmission.16, 17, 18”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [17]
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The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
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“To mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2, governments worldwide implemented public health measures such as stay-at-home orders, frequent handwashing, the maintenance of physical distance, and the wearing of face masks [2].”
Background
- Authors
- Ayouni, I., Maatoug, J., Dhouib, W., Zammit, N., Fredj, S. B., Ghammam, R., & Ghannem, H.
- Affiliations
- Hôpital Farhat Hached (TN)
- Corresponding author
- Ayouni, Imen
- Venue
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2021-05-29
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1015-1015
- ISSN
- 1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8164261
- OpenAlex
- W3165872846
- Cited by
- 418
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 107 · 2023: 120 · 2022: 83 · 2021: 24
- FWCI
- 8.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- 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
- COVID-19 pandemic, public health interventions, non-pharmaceutical interventions, travel restrictions, border measures, quarantine, lockdown, social distancing, masking, contact tracing, testing, school closures, personal protective equipment, healthcare workers
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, China, Communicable Disease Control, Humans, Public Health
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