Study on the patterns of COVID-19 prevention and control in China: An empirical analysis on prefecture-level governments

In order to deal with the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has adopted the “Normalized Epidemic Prevention and Control Requirements” measures in the last two years. This study investigates the effect of smart city projects on the patterns of COVID-19 prevention and control in China’s prefecture-level governments. Using an original prefecture-level data between 2020 and 2021, I show that, after the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, prefecturelevel governments with a higher level of smart city construction adopt more targeted measures towards the COVID-19 pandemic under mild outbreaks, but show no significant difference under severe outbreaks