Fulfilling our role as technical advisors, our CEO, Dr. Gabriel Rada, accompanied the president of the Chilean Medical College to present their position on the curfew to the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

In that committee, Dr. Rada shared the available evidence regarding the health justification for maintaining the curfew nationwide. This information served as the basis and argumentation for the discussion about this confinement and movement restriction measure.

The health committee also summoned the Undersecretary of Public Health, Dr. Paula Daza, the Undersecretary of Crime Prevention, Katherine Martorell, and Dr. Ximena Aguilera, a member of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Health for COVID-19.

During his presentation, Dr. Gabriel Rada, Founder of Epistemonikos and an evidence-based medicine specialist, clarified that "while it is difficult to estimate the specific effect of the curfew, as it is part of a package of measures, there is clarity that its effect decreases as more time passes since its implementation". He also explained that the evidence does show that the set of measures adopted worldwide played a significant role in reducing cases and deaths.

In the meeting, Dr. Siches explained that "in terms of the curfew, we believe that two alternatives could be considered: maintaining it, but associated with phases of greater confinement, or lifting it and tightening the conditions for occupancy that limit social gatherings... The important thing is that the public understands that mobility or meeting limitations are based on protecting the population from the pandemic and not on social control".

 

Confinement Measures: What Do We Know?

Curfew, i.e., the prohibition or restriction of freely moving and staying at home except for exceptions, is one of multiple measures that have been used as part of confinement strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The curfew is part of confinement measures, a subset of actions aimed at restricting the movement of healthy people (unlike isolation and quarantine, which restrict the movement of the sick and contacts), typically enforceable by law.

Despite the difficulty of generating high-quality evidence in the context of a pandemic, the existing body of evidence consistently shows that:

• The set of measures adopted worldwide played a significant role in reducing cases and deaths.
• The effect of the measures was greater when taken early and with greater intensity. In other words, the later it is implemented relative to the onset of the outbreak, the less effective it will be.
• The longer the measure, the less effective it will be. Risks may remain or increase with the duration of the measure but not decrease.
• The greater proportion of the success of confinement measures (up to 90% according to some authors) derives from the voluntary component, which, in turn, depends on people's trust in those implementing the measures and effective communication.