The Success of Public Health Measures in Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Success of Public Health Measures in Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Renata Slabe Erker, Kaja Primc

SARS-CoV-2, a serious threat to sustainable development prospects, is spreading within countries at varying speeds, among other things depending on their population density, behavioural responses, cultural factors, personal hygiene practices and habits. This has led to significant variation in countries’ policy responses aimed at stemming the proliferation of the virus. Using crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis, we conducted a comparative study at the European level to study the performance of different combinations of COVID-19 containment measures along with the response speeds. A set of configurations for two different scenarios (above- and below-median death rates) helps to illustrate how specific containment measures in each examined European country are related to the number of deaths. The main observation arising from the analysis is that the speed of response along with the decision to suspend international flights might determine the epidemic outbreak’s impact on fatality. The results also imply that several different combinations of containment measures are associated with death rates across Europe. The outcome of this analysis can assist in identifying which set of containment measures in the event of an epidemic outbreak is beneficial/detrimental.

2020

coronavirus, Public health measures, qualitative comparative analysis, containment measures, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic

DOI: 10.3390/su12104321

Sustainability

MDPI AG

Environmental sciences, Renewable energy sources, Environmental effects of industries and plants