Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

October 8, 2020

Stringent Containment Measures without Complete City Lockdown to Achieve Low Incidence and Mortality across Two Waves of COVID-19 in Hong Kong

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  • Prompt and stringent containment measures in Hong Kong led to some of the lowest SARS-CoV-2 incidences and mortalities in the world (135.5 and 0.5/1,000,000 population, respectively) by April 2020. Aggressive border control measures reduced Rt from 1.35 to 0.57 and 0.92 to 0.18 in the first and second waves, respectively. Implementation of COVID-19 tests for travelers returning from overseas correlated with an upsurge in asymptomatic cases and shortened containment delay from 6.8 to 3.7 days between the first and second waves. First wave cluster events were mostly family gatherings, while the second wave clusters were often leisure activities among young people.

Wong et al. (Oct 7, 2020). Stringent Containment Measures without Complete City Lockdown to Achieve Low Incidence and Mortality across Two Waves of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. BMJ Global Health. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003573