COVID POLICIES
The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker OxCGRT started in March 2020 to track and collect information on government-enacted policy measures that were taken to combat COVID-19. Daily policy changes were tracked from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022, and through the end of February 2023 for China. National data was collected for 185 countries and sub-national data was collected for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It reports the most stringent government policy in place, which was designed to have the highest ordinal value.
A total of 24 policy indicators were collected.
Containment and closure policies: (C1) school closing, (C2) workplace closing, (C3) cancel public events, (C4) restrictions on gatherings, (C5) close public transport, (C6) stay at home requirements, (C7) restrictions on internal movement, (C8) international travel controls
Economic policies: (E1) income support, (E2) debt/contract relief, (E3) fiscal measures, (E4) international support
Health system policies: (H1) public information campaigns, (H2) testing policy, (H3) contact tracing, (H4) emergency investment in healthcare, (H5) investment in vaccines, (H6) facial coverings, (H7) vaccination policy, (H8) protection of elderly people
Vaccination policies: (V1) vaccination prioritization, (V2a-g) vaccine eligibility/availability, (V3) vaccine financial support, (V4) vaccine requirement/mandate
Ten of the policy indicators differentiate policies by vaccination status: C1-C8, H6, and H8. For these policies, four versions of data are provided. If the same policy applies to everyone regardless of vaccination status, then the everyone version will have values. If policies differ by vaccination status, then the vaccinated and non-vaccinated versions will have values. If the everyone version has values, then the vaccinated and non-vaccinated versions will not have values, and vice-versa. Finally, the majority version of the variable will always have values and indicate either the policy that applies to everyone or to the majority of people depending on the vaccination rate of the country.
The cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases and deaths attributed to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic are provided, as is the percentage of the fully vaccinated population in the jurisdiction.
OxCGRT also provides four indices. The government response index summarizes the following policies: C1-C8, E1-E2, H1-H3, and H6-H8. The containment and health index summarizes the following policies: C1-C8, H1-H3, and H6-H8. The stringency index summarizes the following policies: C1-C8, and H1. The economic support index summarizes the E1 and E2 policies.
Because these indices use ordinal indicators with different scales, a sub-index score that normalizes each of the indicators first created. Additionally, C1-C7, E1, H1, and H7-H8 have an additional binary flag variable that is taken into account. Each sub-index score for any given indicator on any given day is calculated using the maximum value of the indicator and the recorded policy value, the presence of a flag variable and the recorded flag value. This produces a normalized sub-index score between 0 and 100. In the subsequent calculation of the index values, each individual component indicator is given equal weight using a simple average. For more information on the calculation of the index values, please click here.
For each index, OxCGRT provides four versions with different treatments of vaccine-differentiated policies: (1) Nonvax - constructs the index using “non-vaccinated” policies if present, or otherwise uses “everyone” policies, (2) Vax - constructs the index using vaccinated policies if present, or otherwise using everyone policies, (3) Simple average – takes the sum of “nonvax” and “vax” indices and divides them by 2, (4) Weighted average – takes an average of the “nonvax” and “vax” indices weighted by the proportion of the population that is vaccinated.
- Click here to download the Gateway Harmonized OxCGRT Data