Curfews against COVID

Could curfews be a less costly alternative, both economically and socially, to complete lockdowns? In French Guiana, an overseas départment, a combination of curfews and targeted lockdowns in June and July 2020 was sufficient to avoid saturation of hospitals. On weekdays, residents were first ordered to stay at home 11 p.m., then at 9 p.m., later again at 7 p.m., and finally at 5 p.m. On weekends, everyone had to stay at home from 1 p.m. on Saturday (Andronico 2020). Whether curfews can be successfully adapted to other areas than French Guaiana, is not known. French Guaiana is a young territory with a median age is 25 years and the risk of hospitalisation following infection was only 30% that of France. About 20% of the population had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by July 2020 (Andronico 2020). Be prepared, though, to see some curfew orders over the coming six months.

Andronico A, Kiem CT, Paireaux J, et al. Evaluating the impact of curfews and other measures on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in French Guiana. medRxiv 2020, posted 12 October. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.07.20208314