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The effect of health system structure on the COVID‐19 dynamics in Ecuador

Abstract:

To face the COVID‐19 pandemic, governments established certain stringency measures as thelockdown and the traffic light system. However, the response to the pandemic also depends on the existent capacity and underlying conditions of regions. In this line, this study aims to determine the relationship between the COVID‐19 pandemic and the underlying regional health system structure in Ecuador, using three dependent variables: number of COVID‐19 cases, the COVID‐19 prevalence rate at the cantonal level and daily deaths by COVID‐19 at the provincial level; for three phases: isolation, social distancing and contingency. Using daily COVID‐19 data and cantonal (provincial) level variables, a Negative Binomial model and a Tobit model were estimated to analyze the determinants of the number of COVID‐19 cases (deaths), and the prevalence rate, respectively. Our results show a positive relationship …