• Efrén Murillo-Zamora, José Guzmán-Esquivel, Ramón Alberto Sánchez-Piña, Guillermo Cedeño-Laurent, Iván Delgado-Enciso, and Oliver Mendoza-Cano.
• Unidad de Medicina Familiar No. 19, Departamento de Epidemiología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Colima, México. 3frenmurillo@gmail.com.
• J Infect Dev Ctries. 2020 Sep 30; 14 (9): 953-956.

IntroductionPhysical distancing preventive measures were implemented in Mexico as a response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (CoViD-19) pandemic. School closures occurred on March 16, 2020, in 10 out of 32 Mexican states, and one week later in the remaining states. Because the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the influenza virus have similar transmission mechanisms, we aimed to evaluate the impact of physical distancing on the incidence of influenza as a proxy of the impact on SARS-CoV-2 contagion.MethodologyA national flu surveillance system was cross-sectionally analyzed and daily average percent changes (APCs) of incidence rates were calculated throught Poisson regression models.ResultsGreater decreasing trends (APCs -8.8, 95% CI: -12.5, -4.5; vs. -6.0, 95% CI: -9.9, -2.0; p = 0.026) were documented in the states with earlier school closures and across age groups, suggesting that earlier implementation of physical distance results in reduced SARS-CoV-2 spread.ConclusionsPhysical distancing policies decrease the incidence of influenza infections in Mexico; its favorable impact on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is commendable.Copyright (c) 2020 Efren Murillo-Zamora, Jose Guzman-Esquivel , Ramon Alberto Sanchez-Pina, Guillermo Cedeno-Laurent, Ivan Delgado-Enciso, Oliver Mendoza-Cano.

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