The interaction between population age structure and policy interventions on the spread of COVID-19

COVID-19 has triggered an unprecedented public health crisis and a global economic shock. As countries and cities have transitioned away from strict pandemic restrictions, the most effective reopening strategies may vary significantly based on their demographic characteristics and social contact patterns. In this study, we employed an extended age-specific compartment model that incorporates population mobility to investigate the interaction between population age structure and various containment interventions in New York, Los Angeles, Daegu, and Nairobi – four cities with distinct age distributions that served as local epicenters of the epidemic from January 2020 to March 2021. Our results demonstrated that individual social distancing or quarantine strategies alone cannot effectively curb the spread of infection over a one-year period. However, a combined strategy, including school closure, 50 % working from home, 50 % reduction in other mobility, 10 % quarantine rate, and city lockdown interventions, can effectively suppress the infection. Furthermore, our findings revealed that social-distancing policies exhibit strong age-specific effects, and age-targeted interventions can yield significant spillover benefits. Specifically, reducing contact rates among the population under 20 can prevent 14 %, 18 %, 56 %, and 99 % of infections across all age groups in New York, Los Angeles, Daegu, and Nairobi, respectively, surpassing the effectiveness of policies exclusively targeting adults over 60 years old. In particular, to protect the elderly, it is essential to reduce contacts between the younger population and people of all age groups, especially those over 60 years old. While an older population structure may escalate fatality risk, it might also decrease infection risk. Moreover, a higher basic reproduction number amplifies the impact of an older population structure on the fatality risk of the elderly. The considerable variations in susceptibility, severity, and mobility across age groups underscore the need for targeted interventions to effectively control the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate risks in future pandemics.