How Efficient are Government Stringency Responses in Curbing the Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Elvis Achuo

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2020, vol. 4, issue 8, 629-635

Abstract: This study quantitatively examines the effectiveness of government response policies in abating the spread of COVID-19. We employed daily data spanning from mid-February 2020 to early August 2020 for a panel of 50 African countries. Results of the IRFs of the panel VAR model shows a negative significant long-run effect of government stringent responses on the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. This implies that stricter government responses reduce the spread of COVID-19. The robustness of this result was verified with the help of the FMOLS and DOLS estimators. Consequently, this study recommends that African governments should step-up their community screening/testing capacities and continuously organise health campaigns to sensitize the citizens on the importance of respecting COVID-19 barrier measures. Equally, African governments should rethink the health of their citizens by increasing investments in the health sector in order to prevent the devastating health impacts of unexpected future pandemics.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcp:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:8:p:629-635

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