What Are the Reasons for the Different COVID-19 Situations in Different Cities of China? A Study from the Perspective of Population Migration

Yanting Zheng, Jinyuan Huang and Qiuyue Yin
Additional contact information
Yanting Zheng: School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Jinyuan Huang: School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Qiuyue Yin: School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Understanding the reasons for the differences in the spread of COVID-19 in different cities of China is important for future epidemic prevention and control. This study analyzed this issue from the perspective of population migration from Wuhan (the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China). It reveals that population outflow from Wuhan to other cities in Hubei Province (the province where Wuhan is located) and metropolises and provincial capitals outside of Hubei province exceeded those to other cities. This is broadly consistent with the distribution of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Additionally, model analysis revealed that population outflow from Wuhan was the key factor that determined the COVID-19 situations. The spread of COVID-19 was positively correlated with GDP per capita and resident population and negatively correlated with the distance from Wuhan and the number of hospital beds, while population density was not a strong influential factor. Additionally, the demographic characteristics of population migration from Wuhan also affected the virus transmission. Particularly, businesspeople (who tend to have a high frequency of social activities) were more likely to spread COVID-19. This study indicated that specific measures to control population outflow from the epicenter at the early stage of the epidemic were of great significance.

Keywords: COVID-19; epidemic spreading; epidemic prevention and control; population migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3255/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3255/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3255-:d:521466

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().