Travel bans have barely slowed the coronavirus’s spread
Travel restrictions imposed as the new coronavirus took China by storm slowed the spread of COVID-19 by only a few days within China and a few weeks internationally, according to a new study. On January 23, Chinese officials shut down travel in and out of Wuhan, the city where the COVID-19 outbreak began, including closing the airport. But by then the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, had already spread to other cities in mainland China. As a result, the travel ban delayed the progression of the outbreak within the country by only three to five days, researchers report online March 6 in Science. The study simulated the impact of restricting travel on the spread of COVID-19 using population data, travel patterns and disease transmission. See all our coverage of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak While minimally effective within China, the Wuhan travel ban initially had a larger impact on international spread of the virus. The simulation suggested that there were 77 percent fewer cases imported from...