A simple method to quantify country-specific effects of COVID-19 containment measures

Morten Gram Pedersen; Matteo Meneghini

Our analysis of Germany and Austria in many aspects mimic Switzerland, except that for Germany the growth rate is still positive (R 0 > 1). Our estimated date-of-change coincides with the dates of school closures and partial lockdown. Most German federal states closed schools from March 16, 2020 followed by the remaining country from March 18, 2020 -one day before our estimated date of change. The German government imposed partial lockdown from March 17, closing all non-essential shops, and imposing limitation restaurants and banning leisure activities, which was followed by further restrictions in the following days. On March 16 the government of Austria prohibited gatherings of groups of more than five people in public, and all schools were closed from March 17. On this latter date, the closure of restaurants was also ordered. People were recommended to leave home only for purchasing necessary goods (medications, groceries), for assisting other people, or 5 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.