The implementation of public health and economic measures during the first wave of COVID-19 by different countries with respect to time, infection rate and death rate

Since its first confirmed case in December 2019, the COVID-19 outbreak has continued to spread across countries at an alarming rate and resulted in governments worldwide implementing various public health and economic measures to contain the spread. This research studies the context of 227 countries concerning their implementation of ten public health and seven economic measures during the first wave of COVID-19 and reflects on the discrepancy in adopting these measures with respect to time, infection rate, death rate, and test rate. The results reveal that public health measures have been adopted more often and earlier than economic measures. The implementation of measures was mostly influenced by the infection rate. The analysis also finds considerable variances in adopting the measures across countries. Potentially such variances explain the large difference in COVID-19 related causalities across nations worldwide. This is further reflected in this article by considering the top ten countries that experienced a higher death toll. The article also explores Australia s notable success in controlling the spread and fatalities of COVID-19 during the first wave, and how it fared against the world regarding its implementation of various measures. Overall, this research highlights the high uncertainties governments encounter when facing a new pandemic and the need for global cooperation during such uncertainties. (Article 16)