China Zero-Covid Risk Level Dataset

This dataset records the county-level COVID-19 risk levels from April 2, 2021, to December 15, 2022, with daily frequency. The data was sourced from the Chinese State Council’s public website for COVID-19 risk levels (the original site is no longer active). Risk levels are categorized into three classes: high risk, medium risk, and low risk. Until July 21, 2022, only regions designated as medium or high risk were publicly listed, with all other areas classified as low risk. From July 21 to November 15, 2022, the website expanded to include low-risk areas as well, marking all other regions as under “normal preventive control.” Starting November 15, 2022, only high-risk and low-risk regions were listed, with other areas still under normal preventive control. For details on these adjustments in risk definitions, please refer to related policy documents and reports. The dataset includes binary status variables for both high_risk and mid_risk levels, where a value of 1 indicates that a county contains at least one area classified as high or medium risk, respectively. Please note that a county may simultaneously contain both high- and medium-risk areas, resulting in both high_risk and mid_risk being marked as 1. This dataset has been cleaned to the county level, though the original data included some street-level information. Researchers interested in the original finer-level details should contact the authors directly. The dataset, along with additional notes, is available at: https://github.com/dadasmash/China_COVID_Risk_Level_Dataset/tree/master For further details on the dataset’s structure, please refer to the original publication. If you utilize this dataset, please cite: • Da Gong, Zhuocheng Shang, Yaqin Su, Andong Yan, Qi Zhang, “Economic impacts of China’s zero-COVID policies,” China Economic Review, Volume 83, 2024, 102101, ISSN 1043-951X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2023.102101. Contributors: Da Gong, Andong Yan, Qi Zhang