TY - JOUR
T1 - Association between mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and COVID-19 transmission in Ghana
T2 - A modelling study using mobile phone data
AU - Gibbs, Hamish
AU - Liu, Yang
AU - Abbott, Sam
AU - Baffoe-Nyarko, Isaac
AU - Laryea, Dennis O.
AU - Akyereko, Ernest
AU - Kuma-Aboagye, Patrick
AU - Asante, Ivy Asantewaa
AU - Mitjà, Oriol
AU - Ampofo, William
AU - Asiedu-Bekoe, Franklin
AU - Marks, Michael
AU - Eggo, Rosalind M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Gibbs et al.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Governments around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Here we assess if increasing NPI stringency was associated with a reduction in COVID-19 cases in Ghana. While lockdowns and physical distancing have proven effective for reducing COVID-19 transmission, there is still limited understanding of how NPI measures are reflected in indicators of human mobility. Further, there is a lack of understanding about how findings from high-income settings correspond to low and middle-income contexts. In this study, we assess the relationship between indicators of human mobility, NPIs, and estimates of Rt, a real-time measure of the intensity of COVID-19 transmission. We construct a multilevel generalised linear mixed model, combining local disease surveillance data from subnational districts of Ghana with the timing of NPIs and indicators of human mobility from Google and Vodafone Ghana. We observe a relationship between reductions in human mobility and decreases in Rt during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ghana. We find that the strength of this relationship varies through time, decreasing after the most stringent period of interventions in the early epidemic. Our findings demonstrate how the association of NPI and mobility indicators with COVID-19 transmission may vary through time. Further, we demonstrate the utility of combining local disease surveillance data with large scale human mobility data to augment existing surveillance capacity to monitor the impact of NPI policies.
AB - Governments around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Here we assess if increasing NPI stringency was associated with a reduction in COVID-19 cases in Ghana. While lockdowns and physical distancing have proven effective for reducing COVID-19 transmission, there is still limited understanding of how NPI measures are reflected in indicators of human mobility. Further, there is a lack of understanding about how findings from high-income settings correspond to low and middle-income contexts. In this study, we assess the relationship between indicators of human mobility, NPIs, and estimates of Rt, a real-time measure of the intensity of COVID-19 transmission. We construct a multilevel generalised linear mixed model, combining local disease surveillance data from subnational districts of Ghana with the timing of NPIs and indicators of human mobility from Google and Vodafone Ghana. We observe a relationship between reductions in human mobility and decreases in Rt during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ghana. We find that the strength of this relationship varies through time, decreasing after the most stringent period of interventions in the early epidemic. Our findings demonstrate how the association of NPI and mobility indicators with COVID-19 transmission may vary through time. Further, we demonstrate the utility of combining local disease surveillance data with large scale human mobility data to augment existing surveillance capacity to monitor the impact of NPI policies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146481805&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502
DO - 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000502
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146481805
SN - 2767-3375
VL - 2
JO - PLOS Global Public Health
JF - PLOS Global Public Health
IS - 9
M1 - e0000502
ER -