Observational studyThe Lancet. Public health2020
Impact assessment of non-pharmaceutical interventions against coronavirus disease 2019 and influenza in Hong Kong: an observational study.
Observational study in The Lancet. Public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 671 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
671 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,331 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Economic Value of Non-pharmaceutical Interventions for Influenza and COVID-19: A Systematic Review.Applied health economics and health policy · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 transmission: rapid review of evidence from Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of social distancing measures and lockdowns for reducing transmission of COVID-19 in non-healthcare, community-based settings.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Environmental Risk Factors, Protective Factors, and Biomarkers for Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2023Pooled it
- Non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19 reduced the incidence of infectious diseases: a controlled interrupted time-series study.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2023Pooled it
- Monitoring School Absenteeism for Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Pooled it
- Decreased risk of non-influenza respiratory infection after influenza B virus infection in children.Epidemiology and infection · 2024Trial
- Impact of immunization strategies, public health and social measures on the incidence of varicella among children aged 0-14 years in Quzhou City.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Influenza-Like Illness Forecasting Using Multisource Data: Comparative Deep Learning Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Multi-source machine learning for short-term influenza forecasting in Hunan Province, China: a spatiotemporal analysis using surveillance, search, meteorological and air-quality data.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- The impact of public health and social measures on social contact patterns and transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Asymmetric post-pandemic recovery of influenza A and B since 2020 in Hong Kong: an interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis of weekly surveillance data with subtype and lineage characterization.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Premature termination of unemployment benefits increased COVID-19 transmission and deaths in the USA.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Policy challenges in the provision of COVID-19 border screening: evidence from eight countries.BMC public health · 2026Review
- Structural and temporal dynamics of pediatric influenza prevention and treatment: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of historical evolution and emerging trends.Translational pediatrics · 2026Article
- Comparative Analysis of Flight Volume Effects on COVID-19 and Influenza Transmission Across Variable Control Intensities, 2019-2024.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- In the shadow of COVID-19: changes in the seroprevalence of pediatric Mycoplasma pneumoniae.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Article
- Population Surveillance of Respiratory Viral Diseases among Arrivals at National Airports and Seaports in the Republic of Korea, February-September 2025.Public health weekly report · 2026Article
- Article
611 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA range of public health measures have been implemented to suppress local transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hong Kong. We examined the effect of these interventions and behavioural changes of the public on the incidence of COVID-19, as well as on influenza virus infections, which might share some aspects of transmission dynamics with COVID-19.
methodsWe analysed data on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, influenza surveillance data in outpatients of all ages, and influenza hospitalisations in children. We estimated the daily effective reproduction number (R
findingsCOVID-19 transmissibility measured by R
interpretationOur study shows that non-pharmaceutical interventions (including border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, distancing, and changes in population behaviour) were associated with reduced transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, and are also likely to have substantially reduced influenza transmission in early February, 2020.
fundingHealth and Medical Research Fund, Hong Kong.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.