California’s aggressive stay-at-home restrictions in the wake of COVID-19’s first wave likely averted nearly 90,000 additional cases of the disease and 1,500 deaths, according to a new report by independent researchers.
The project focused on California because it was first to go statewide with its orders.
“Early and strong action, and in particular early and strong action in densely populated places, is going to get the largest return in terms of slowing the virus,” Andrew Friedson, one of the study’s authors, told Capital & Main in an email exchange.
“This isn’t just conjecture,” added Friedson, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado, Denver. “We released a second study looking at shelter-in-place in the entire country, which backs this up.”
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