Table 1.

Description of the 13 indicators of which the stringency index consists.

Indicators of Stringency Index	Scoring-Description
School closures	0—No measures, 1—recommend closing, 2—Require closing (only some levels or categories, e.g., just high school, or just public schools), 3—Require closing all levels
Workplace closures	0—No measures, 1—recommend closing (or work from home), 2—require closing (or work from home) for some sectors or categories of workers, 3—require closing (or work from home) all but essential workplaces (eg grocery stores, doctors)
Cancel public events	0- No measures, 1—Recommend cancelling, 2—Require cancelling
Restrictions on gatherings	0—No restrictions, 1—Restrictions on very large gatherings (the limit is above 1000 people), 2—Restrictions on gatherings between 100–1000 people, 3—Restrictions on gatherings between 10–100 people, 4—Restrictions on gatherings of less than 10 people,
Close public transport	0—No measures, 1—Recommend closing (or significantly reduce volume/route/means of transport available), 2—Require closing (or prohibit most citizens from using it)
Public information campaigns	0—No COVID-19 public information campaign, 1—public officials urging caution about COVID-19, 2—coordinated public information campaign (e.g., across traditional and social media)
Stay at home	0—No measures, 1—recommend not leaving house, 2—require not leaving house with exceptions for daily exercise, grocery shopping, and ‘essential’ trips, 3—Require not leaving house with minimal exceptions (e.g., allowed to leave only once every few days, or only one person can leave at a time, etc.)
Restrictions on internal movement	0—No measures, 1—Recommend movement restriction, 2—Restrict movement,
International travel controls	0—No measures, 1—Screening, 2—Quarantine arrivals from high-risk regions, 3—Ban on high-risk regions, 4—Total border closure
Testing policy	0—No testing policy, 1—Only those who both (a) have symptoms AND (b) meet specific criteria (e.g., key workers, admitted to hospital, came into contact with a known case, returned from overseas), 2—testing of anyone showing COVID-19 symptoms, 3—open public testing (e.g., “drive through” testing available to asymptomatic people)
Contract tracing	0—No contact tracing, 1—Limited contact tracing—not done for all cases, 2—Comprehensive contact tracing—done for all cases
Face coverings	0—No policy, 1—Recommended, 2—Required in some specified shared/public spaces outside the home with other people present, or some situations when social distancing not possible, 3—Required in all shared/public spaces outside the home with other people present or all situations when social distancing not possible, 4—Required outside the home at all times regardless of location or presence of other people
Vaccination policy	0—No availability, 1—Availability for ONE of following: key workers/clinically vulnerable groups/elderly groups, 2—Availability for TWO of following: key workers/clinically vulnerable groups/elderly groups, 3—Availability for ALL of following: key workers/clinically vulnerable groups/elderly groups, 4—Availability for all three plus partial additional availability (select broad groups/ages), 5—Universal availability