Provincial governments in Canada have taken different approaches to containing the spread of COVID-19. This stringency index was constructed by staff at the Bank of Canada using methodology developed by Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government for the Oxford COVID‑19 Government Response Tracker. Bank staff adjusted Oxford’s methodology to make it more appropriate for the Canadian context and to better capture more granular differences in policy responses across provinces. The index measures the stringency of policy related to containment restrictions and public information campaigns across provinces and over time. The stringency index does not measure the effectiveness of a province’s COVID‑19 response or the economic impact of government policies.
The COVID-19 stringency index was discontinued with its last observation on July 15, 2022.
COVID-19 stringency index by region
* The indexes for Prairies (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan), Atlantic (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) and Canada (all 10 provinces) are GDP‑weighted averages of the indexes for their corresponding provinces.
Source: Bank of Canada calculations
COVID-19 stringency index by province
Source: Bank of Canada calculations