EFFECTIVENESS OF LAND BORDER CLOSURES IN TWIN CITIES AIMING AT MITIGATING THE SPREAD OF SARS-COV-2 AND ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CITY’S CHARACTERISTICS AND COVID-19 INCIDENCE

• Autor(a) principal: Prada, Yury Lizeth Cardozo
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Gamarra, Carmen Justina, Nampo, Fernando Kenji
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Hygeia (Uberlândia)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/hygeia/article/view/69006
• topic: Cidades gêmeas; Covid-19; Fronteiras internacionais; Twin Cities; Covid-19; International borders

We investigated the effectiveness of closing land borders in Brazilian twin cities as a measure to mitigate the increase in Covid-19 cases. Our investigation comprised a controlled before-and-after study followed by a case-control study to evaluate associated factors influencing the rise in Covid-19 incidence. We utilized data encompassing all Covid-19 cases and deaths between August and December 2020. No association was found between border opening and the incidence rate neither among controls (381.00 [261.31-932.96] vs 394.64 [163.23–957.03] per 100,000 population, z=1.09, p=0.27), nor in the intervention group (246.89 [222.17–549.26] vs 231.70 [179.15–646.26] per 100,000 population, z=0.20, p=0.84). The same occurred regarding Covid-19 mortality rate in both control and intervention group (6.26 [2.09-14.66] vs 7.14 [2.88–16.79], z=0.53, p=0.59); (6.86 [5.23-16.54] per 100,000 population vs 4.43 [2.86-11.88] per 100,000 population, z=1.53, p=0.12), respectively. Subsequently, we found no association between population size, the presence of airports, distance between cities, border type, and the incidence of Covid-19. The lack of association between the reopening of international land borders and the characteristics of twin cities with the impact caused by Covid-19 should be considered when restricting the flow of people between twin cities during a pandemic.