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Review
. 2021 Sep 3;13(5):383-398.
doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihab037.

The emergence and transmission of COVID-19 in European countries, 2019-2020: a comprehensive review of timelines, cases and containment

Waleed Al-Salem  1 , Paula Moraga  2 , Hani Ghazi  3 , Syra Madad  4   5 , Peter J Hotez  6   7   8
Affiliations
Review

The emergence and transmission of COVID-19 in European countries, 2019-2020: a comprehensive review of timelines, cases and containment

Waleed Al-Salem et al. Int Health. .

Abstract

When it emerged in late 2019, COVID-19 was carried via travelers to Germany, France and Italy, where freedom of movement accelerated its transmission throughout Europe. However, effective non-pharmaceutical interventions introduced by European governments led to containment of the rapid increase in cases within European nations. Electronic searches were performed to obtain the number of confirmed cases, incident rates and non-pharmaceutical government measures for each European country. The spread and impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions throughout Europe were assessed and visualized. Specifically, heatmaps were used to represent the number of confirmed cases and incident rates for each of the countries over time. In addition, maps were created showing the number of confirmed cases and incident rates in Europe on three different dates (15 March, 15 April and 15 May 2020), which allowed us to assess the geographic and temporal patterns of the disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; Europe; SARS-CoV-2; non-pharmaceutical interventions; pandemic.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Heatmaps representing (A) the number of confirmed cases per 100 000 people and (B) incidence rates (IR) in Europe.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Maps representing the number of confirmed cases per 100 000 people on (A) 15 March, (B) 15 April and (C) 15 May 2020 and incidence rates (IR) on (D) 15 March, (E) 15 April and (F) 15 May 2020 in Europe.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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