Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

About 60 million Americans avoided being infected by the coronavirus because of the lockdowns across the country, according to a study published Monday.

The study, published in the journal Nature, looked at the effects of closing schools, restricting populations to their homes and other lockdown measures had on the growth rate of infections in the United States, China, South Korea, Italy, Iran and France.

"We estimate that across these six countries, interventions prevented or delayed on the order of 62 million confirmed (COVID-19) cases, corresponding to averting roughly 530 million total infections," the study said.

Solomon Hsiang, director of the Global Policy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley and the leader of the research team, told The Washington Post, "The disease was spreading at a really extraordinary rate that is rare even among very infectious diseases.”

The global response to COVID-19 resulted in “saving more lives in a shorter period of time than ever before,” Hsiang said in a separate conference call with reporters.

A separate study, also published in Nature, found that lockdowns across 11 European countries averted 3.1 million deaths and reduced infections by 82%.

Meanwhile, as countries begin lifting restrictions, officials from the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic remains a major problem.

“More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a daily briefing in Geneva.

Tedros said, "Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported — the most in a single day so far. Almost 75% of yesterday’s cases come from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia."

Worldwide, the total number of infections has reached more than 7.1 million and over 404,100 people have died. The U.S. has recorded nearly 2 million cases and more than 110,770 deaths.

Latest Developments

United States:

-The National Bureau of Economic Research said the U.S. entered a recession in February. "The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions," the bureau wrote in a news release.

Worldwide:

-The World Bank said the coronavirus pandemic has triggered the deepest recession in decades. Economists at the organization expect the global economy in 2020 to shrink 5.2% — nearly three times as steep as the global recession in 2009.

-After seeing a sharp increase in new coronavirus infections, Israel will delay the next round of reopening plans, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. For the past eight days, Israel has seen about 100 new infections a day, up from about 20 new infections a day a week earlier.

-Officials in New Zealand announced the country has no active coronavirus cases and no new cases. “While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, adding: “Thank you, New Zealand.”

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

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