The changing patterns of COVID-19 transmissibility during the social unrest in the United States: A nationwide ecological study with a before-and-after comparison
Jinjun Ran,
Shi Zhao,
Lefei Han,
Marc K.C. Chong,
Yulan Qiu,
Yiwei Yang,
Jiayi Wang,
Yushan Wu,
Mohammad Javanbakht,
Maggie H. Wang,
Daihai He
Affiliations
Jinjun Ran
School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Shi Zhao
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China
Lefei Han
School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Marc K.C. Chong
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China
Yulan Qiu
School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Yiwei Yang
School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Jiayi Wang
College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Yushan Wu
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Mohammad Javanbakht
Nephrology and Urology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Maggie H. Wang
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China
Daihai He
Department of Applied Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Corresponding author.
Nationwide mass social unrest has emerged in the US since May 25 and raised broad concerns about its impacts on the local COVID-19 epidemics. We compared the COVID-19 transmissibility between May 19–May 25 and May 29–June 4 for each state of the US. We found that social unrest is likely associated with the rebound of the COVID-19 transmissibility, which might raise difficulties in the pandemic control.
