The changing patterns of COVID-19 transmissibility during the social unrest in the United States : a nationwide ecological study with a before-and-after comparison

Abstract

Nationwide mass social unrest has emerged in the US since May 25 and raised broad concerns about its impacts on the local COVID-19 epidemics. We compared the COVID-19 transmissibility between May 19–May 25 and May 29–June 4 for each state of the US. We found that social unrest is likely associated with the rebound of the COVID-19 transmissibility, which might raise difficulties in the pandemic control.