Summary
Social distancing is an action taken to minimise contact with other individuals; social distancing measures comprise one category of non-pharmaceutical countermeasures (NPCs)1 aimed at reducing disease transmission and thereby also reducing pressure on health services.
This document builds upon existing ECDC documents, including guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical measures to delay and mitigate the impact of 2019-nCoV, a rapid risk assessment: outbreak of novel coronavirus disease – 5th update, a technical report on the use of evidence in decision-making during public health emergencies, and a guidance document on community engagement for public health events caused by communicable disease threats in the EU/EEA.
Download as PDF
PDF files are made available as a convenience. In cases where the EMCDDA is not the originator of the document, please be aware that any PDFs available on this page may not be authoritative or there may be more recent versions available. While we make every effort to ensure that these files are definitive, before using or citing them, we recommend that you consult the publisher's website or contact the author(s) to check for more recent versions.
- Open access
- English