Covid-19 Government Response

About Covid-19 Government Response

The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) is a research project run by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford that collected data on government policy measures taken to address COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022. It produced a global dataset covering over 180 countries and more than 200 subnational jurisdictions, tracking 23 policy indicators such as school closures, travel restrictions, mask mandates, and vaccination policies, aggregated into a set of policy indices. The dataset was compiled by more than 1,500 volunteers and citizen scientists and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 license, with data available on GitHub.

Since most COVID-19 policies were lifted by mid-2023 and the WHO declared an end to the public health emergency, the project shifted from data collection to research on the impacts and determinants of pandemic policy, aiming to inform decision-makers about effective responses for future pandemics. The dataset has been used by policymakers and cited in numerous academic studies, with a recommended citation published in Nature Human Behaviour.

This resource is intended for researchers, policymakers, and analysts studying government responses to COVID-19 or preparing evidence-based policy work related to future pandemics, and for those seeking access to a structured, citable dataset of pandemic-era policy measures across countries and time.

Key features

• Tracks COVID-19 government policy responses across over 180 countries and 200+ subnational jurisdictions
• Covers 23 policy indicators including school closures, travel restrictions, mask mandates, and vaccination policies
• Aggregates indicators into composite policy indices
• Provides open dataset from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022 (China data through 28 February 2023)
• Offers interactive visualisations of policy indicators via Our World in Data and Github

Frequently asked questions