COVID-19 Stringency Index

Canadian provinces and territories took highly divergent approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic. To measure the relative stringency of policy responses, we followed the team at Oxford University’s COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and developed an index that captures pandemic policy responses introduced over time. Our index captures twelve different measures enacted by Canadian provincial governments including gathering sizes, masks, school closures, and travel restrictions.

Our codebook was updated on June 28, 2021 to provide a more nuanced evaluation of measures for gatherings (S1) and dining & restaurants (S6). Data is updated weekly and going forward will follow the new codebook. Data following the old codebook is current as to June 28, 2021 and can be downloaded below.

The Centre data and the Oxford University’s COVID-19 Government Response Tracker have now been combined to produce a joint working paper Variation in the Canadian provincial and territorial responses to COVID-19.

Download the data:

• Github
• NEW codebook: Updated July 26: COVID-19 Stringency Index.csv
• LEGACY codebook: Updated June 28, 2021: COVID-19 Stringency Index.csv

To cite this data:
Breton, Charles, Paisley Sim and Mohy-Dean Tabbara. 2021. COVID-19 Canadian Provinces Measures Dataset. Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation. Montreal. Institute for Research on Public Policy.

One year later: A snapshot of the Canadian response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The thumbnails below provide a snapshot of how provincial measures have varied one year into the pandemic and how these measures compare to the evolution of Covid-19 cases. These graphs will be updated from time to time, but the data is updated weekly.