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How are governments responding to the Coronavirus pandemic?

The latest coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) is a disease which has affected most, if not all, countries in the world.

But, the magnitude of these impacts have varied a lot between countries – some have been very successful in limiting the spread of the disease, and in preventing deaths.

To understand which policies might be effective in controlling the outbreak – especially as countries move towards easing restrictions – it’s essential that we have a good dataset on the timing and stringency of responses across the world.

We have just published a new article on policy responses.

The research we provide on policy responses is sourced from the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT). This resource is published by researchers at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford: Thomas Hale, Anna Petherik, Beatriz Kira, Noam Angrist, Toby Phillips and Samuel Webster.

OxCGRT collects publicly available information on 17 indicators of government responses, spanning containment and closure policies (such as such as school closures and restrictions in movement); economic policies; and health system policies (such as testing regimes).