TY - JOUR AU - Sypsa, Vana AU - Roussos, Sotirios AU - Paraskevis, Dimitrios AU - Lytras, Theodore AU - Tsiodras, Sotirios AU - Hatzakis, Angelos T1 - Effects of Social Distancing Measures during the First Epidemic Wave of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Infection, Greece T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 2 SP - 452 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Greece imposed a nationwide lockdown in March 2020 to mitigate transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 during the first epidemic wave. We conducted a survey on age-specific social contact patterns to assess effects of physical distancing measures and used a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered model to simulate the epidemic. Because multiple distancing measures were implemented simultaneously, we assessed their overall effects and the contribution of each measure. Before measures were implemented, the estimated basic reproduction number (R0) was 2.38 (95% CI 2.01–2.80). During lockdown, daily contacts decreased by 86.9% and R0 decreased by 81.0% (95% credible interval [CrI] 71.8%–86.0%); each distancing measure decreased R0 by 10%–24%. By April 26, the attack rate in Greece was 0.12% (95% CrI 0.06%–0.26%), one of the lowest in Europe, and the infection fatality ratio was 1.12% (95% CrI 0.55%–2.31%). Multiple social distancing measures contained the first epidemic wave in Greece. KW - respiratory infections KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - SARS KW - COVID-19 KW - coronavirus disease KW - zoonoses KW - viruses KW - coronavirus KW - epidemiology KW - basic reproduction number KW - social distancing KW - models KW - Greece DO - 10.3201/eid2702.203412 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-3412_article ER - End of Reference