Rising incidents of covid-19 cases has become a primary concern of the government of the US and Canada. The US has the highest number of covid-19 cases in the world with 16, 549, 366 cases and 454,852 cases recorded in Canada as of December 12. The purpose of this paper is to examine policy effectiveness in curbing the widespread of Covid-19 in the US and Canada from February 1 to October 20. Using an observational study, this paper analyzed thirteen subcategories of policies, four aggregate indices, and social distancing attitudes of the polity used by the government of the US and Canada to reduce the spread of covid-19 in their nations. On April 1, when social distancing compliance and stringency index peaked in both countries, new cases per million and declined in the US and Canada. When economic reopening began in gradual phases in May, stringency index and social distancing compliance declined gradually while new cases per million in the US and Canada started rising on June 1. The results show that policies are effective to curb the widespread Coronavirus disease but there is a long lag period and these policies cannot be relaxed at any point in time if the objective is to contain the virus. Strict policies will be at the expense of hurting the economy. The dilemma facing the regulators is unprecedented. Furthermore, social distancing data show how political beliefs can present itself as a major limitation to the effectiveness of state or federal mandate to curb the widespread of the coronavirus. There is hope that vaccines will put an end to this miserable year.
