Understanding the Effectiveness of Stringent Governmental Policies Against Mortality Rates in the Case Study of COVID-19: A Comparison of Twenty-Two Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic made its first appearance in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and hit almost every country around the globe swiftly. The scientific knowledge to curb the transmission of this novel disease and treat the affectees was limited at the beginning of the pandemic; therefore, the countries enacted containment policies with varying stringency to tackle the rising mortality rates. This chapter investigated the impact of government stringency in five groups of 22 countries with respect to the timings of policy implementation and the subsequent impact on the mortality rates. The research also attempted to assess the effectiveness of government stringency against COVID-19 mortality under the lens of people’s adherence to their government’s measures. Moreover, the significance of the time frame of policy was observed to matter in two ways. First, how early the policy was implemented with respect to other countries and in relation to the first five reported COVID-19 cases, and second, how long the policy was implemented. The research findings concluded that while other factors also contribute to this relationship, government stringency did play a significant role in the reduction of COVID-19 mortality rates, relatively better in countries where the percentage of the elderly population is smaller.