Effectiveness of border closures/ travel restrictions, screening and/ or quarantine to control the international spread of COVID-19

Table of Contents

• Update prepared by: 1
• Julianne Piper 1
• Lara Hollmann 1
• Zoe Hong 1
• Kelley Lee 1
• Review prepared by: 1
• Contact: 1
• Land Acknowledgements 2
• Funding Acknowledgements 2
• General Disclaimer 2
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
•  General notes 6
•  International border closures/travel restrictions 7
•  Screening at borders 7
•  Quarantine 8
• Introduction 10
• Methods 11
• Population, interventions, comparators, outcomes, study designs (PICOS) 12
• Search strategy for identification of studies 13
• Study selection 13
• Data abstraction and management 13
• Assessment of methodological quality and potential risk of bias 13
• Data summary 14
• Results 14
• Overall completeness and applicability of evidence 19
• Strengths in the review methods 19
• Weaknesses and potential biases in the review methods 19
• Implications of this rapid review 20
• For current practice 20
• For future research 20
• Conclusion 21
• References 23
• Table 2. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale Assessments 33
• Table 3. QUADAS-2 Assessments. 37
• Tables 3-5 GRADE Summaries of Findings 39
• Table 4. GRADE Summary of Findings – Screening at borders 45
• Table 5. GRADE Summary of Findings - Quarantine 53
• Tables 6-8 Canada and similar countries - GRADE Summaries of Findings 61
• Table 6. Canada and related countries* – GRADE Summary of Findings – Border closures/ travel restrictions for reducing or stopping cross‐border travel 62
• Table 7. Canada and related countries* – GRADE Summary of Findings – Screening at borders 64
• Table 8. Canada and related countries* – GRADE Summary of Findings – Quarantine 70
• Appendix 1. Search Strategies 75
• Ovid MEDLINE® Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process, In-Data-Review & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily <1946 to February 2, 2024> 75
• Embase <1974 to 2024 February 2> 82
• WHO COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease (search.bvsalud.org/ global-literatureon-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov) 89
• Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register (COVID-19.cochrane.org) 91
• Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register (COVID-19.cochrane.org) 92
• Appendix 2. List of countries deemed comparable to Canada 93