Fig. 4

Characterization of new COVID-19 cases at the beginning and close of lockdowns. Countries were characterized on a 5-point heuristic based on new COVID-19 cases prior to, during, at the end of, and 5-days and 14-days post lockdown, and subjected to hierarchical clustering. Dendrogram and associated heatmap shows six major clusters (indicated by dashed blue line on the dendogram). Time-courses of new COVID-19 cases are shown for an exemplar country from each cluster, with the lockdown start and end days indicated by the two blue vertical bars in each plot. Heatmap is color-coded by the assigned values of the five-point criteria (− 1 = skyblue, 0 = ivory, 1 = coral)