SHUTDOWNS THROUGH EARLY APRIL STOPPED 60-M US COVID-19 CASES

If large-scale shutdown policies -- such as ordering people to stay home and closing schools -- were not implemented after the coronavirus pandemic reached the US, there would be roughly 60 million more infections across the nation, a new modeling study suggests, Jacqueline Howard reported for CNN on June 9, 2020.

The study, published on Monday in the scientific journal Nature, involved a modeling technique typically used for estimating economic growth to measure the effect of shutdown policies across six countries: China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France and the United States.

Those estimates suggest that, without certain policies in place from the beginning of the pandemic in January through early April, there would be roughly 285 million infections in China, 38 million in South Korea, 49 million in Italy, 54 million in Iran, 45 million in France and 60 million in the US.

The study said the total number of infections avoided due to restrictions is 500 million.