COVID-19

Photo of u-haul trailer parked outside a rural cottage

Researchers reveal global patterns of ‘urban exodus’ 

Take Our Survey and Help Shape What Comes Next A new study by an international team led WorldPop postgraduate researcher Qianwen Duan has revealed a significant “urban exodus” across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing high-resolution data from 35 countries, the research team found that while many people fled dense city centres for […]

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Graphic illustrating the potential impact of social, mobility and contact networks on infectious disease transmission.

How Our Social Connections Shape the Spread of Disease: What New Research Reveals

In today’s interconnected world, a local outbreak can become a global crisis with remarkable speed. Planes link distant cities in hours, social media connects millions in seconds, and our daily routines weave together countless invisible threads of contact. A recent scoping review led by WorldPop PhD researcher Zhifeng Cheng and published in Infectious Diseases of

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What effect will lunar new year have on COVID spread in China? Our modelling shows most people have already been infected

Shengjie Lai, University of Southampton and Andrew J Tatem, University of Southampton China stuck rigidly to a zero-COVID policy until December 2022. This included travel restrictions, mass testing and mandatory quarantines. The rapid lifting of this strategy led to a surge of COVID infections across the country. There have been concerns that the Chinese lunar

What effect will lunar new year have on COVID spread in China? Our modelling shows most people have already been infected Read More »