Early mitigation measures are most effective, but restrictions cause concerns

Measures to flatten the curve — including lockdowns, quarantines, and shutting down of non-essential services — have been most effective when countries have acted quickly and adopted wide-scale measures of social and economic protection.

Countries are increasing the adoption of restrictive control measures in an effort to flatten the curve. Ninety three percent of the world’s population are now in countries that have imposed some form of travel restrictions, posing particular and heightened risks of outbreaks in humanitarian response locations, which can include internally displaced persons settings, refugee camps and informal urban settlements.