This brief sets out practical considerations relating to the design and impact of measures that restrict human movement patterns in the context of COVID-19. These measures include: quarantine, in which individuals who have been exposed to a communicable disease are separated from others for the duration of the disease’s incubation period; isolation, in which individuals with a communicable disease are separated from others for as long as they are infectious; and social distancing, in which individuals or large groups of people are restricted from gathering.

Measures may be mandatory (governmentally required and enforced) or voluntary (not required but recommended by government or developed and implemented at the community or individual level).