scholarly journals The basic reproduction number and prediction of the epidemic size of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Shahroud, Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Khosravi ◽  
R. Chaman ◽  
M. Rohani-Rasaf ◽  
F. Zare ◽  
S. Mehravaran ◽  
...  

Abstract The aim of this study was to estimate the basic reproduction number (R0) of COVID-19 in the early stage of the epidemic and predict the expected number of new cases in Shahroud in Northeastern Iran. The R0 of COVID-19 was estimated using the serial interval distribution and the number of incidence cases. The 30-day probable incidence and cumulative incidence were predicted using the assumption that daily incidence follows a Poisson distribution determined by daily infectiousness. Data analysis was done using ‘earlyR’ and ‘projections’ packages in R software. The maximum-likelihood value of R0 was 2.7 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1−3.4) for the COVID-19 epidemic in the early 14 days and decreased to 1.13 (95% CI 1.03–1.25) by the end of day 42. The expected average number of new cases in Shahroud was 9.0 ± 3.8 cases/day, which means an estimated total of 271 (95% CI: 178–383) new cases for the period between 02 April to 03 May 2020. By day 67 (27 April), the effective reproduction number (Rt), which had a descending trend and was around 1, reduced to 0.70. Based on the Rt for the last 21 days (days 46–67 of the epidemic), the prediction for 27 April to 26 May is a mean daily cases of 2.9 ± 2.0 with 87 (48–136) new cases. In order to maintain R below 1, we strongly recommend enforcing and continuing the current preventive measures, restricting travel and providing screening tests for a larger proportion of the population.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Khosravi ◽  
Reza Chaman ◽  
Marzieh Rohani-Rasaf ◽  
Fariba Zare ◽  
Shiva Mehravaran ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesTo estimate the basic reproduction number (R0) of COVID-19 in the early stage of the epidemic and predict the expected number of new cases in Shahroud, Northeast of Iran.MethodsThe R0 of COVID-19 was estimated using the serial interval distribution and the number of incidence cases. The serial interval was fit with a gamma distribution. The probable incidence and cumulative incidence in the next 30 days were predicted using the assumption that daily incidence follows a Poisson distribution determined by daily infectiousness. Data analysis was done using “earlyR” and “projections” packages in R software.ResultsThe maximum-likelihood value of R0 was 2.7 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1 to 3.4) for the COVID-19 epidemic in the early 14 days and decreased to 1.13 (95% CI: 1.03 to 1.25) by the end of the day 41. The expected average number of new cases in Shahroud is 9.0±3.8 case/day, which means an estimated total of 271 (95% CI: 178-383) new cases in the next 30 days.ConclusionsIt is essential to reduce the R0 to values below one. Therefore, we strongly recommend enforcing and continuing the current preventive measures, restricting travel, and providing screening tests for a larger proportion of the population.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0249037
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Chu

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that was first reported at the end of 2019 has impacted almost every aspect of life as we know it. This paper focuses on the incidence of the disease in Italy and Spain—two of the first and most affected European countries. Using two simple mathematical epidemiological models—the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered model and the log-linear regression model, we model the daily and cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in the two countries during the early stage of the outbreak, and compute estimates for basic measures of the infectiousness of the disease including the basic reproduction number, growth rate, and doubling time. Estimates of the basic reproduction number were found to be larger than 1 in both countries, with values being between 2 and 3 for Italy, and 2.5 and 4 for Spain. Estimates were also computed for the more dynamic effective reproduction number, which showed that since the first cases were confirmed in the respective countries the severity has generally been decreasing. The predictive ability of the log-linear regression model was found to give a better fit and simple estimates of the daily incidence for both countries were computed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin N. Thompson ◽  
Francesca A. Lovell-Read ◽  
Uri Obolski

Interventions targeting symptomatic hosts and their contacts were successful in bringing the 2003 SARS pandemic under control. In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic has been harder to contain, partly because of its wide spectrum of symptoms in infectious hosts. Current evidence suggests that individuals can transmit the novel coronavirus while displaying few symptoms. Here, we show that the proportion of infections arising from hosts with few symptoms at the start of an outbreak can, in combination with the basic reproduction number, indicate whether or not interventions targeting symptomatic hosts are likely to be effective. However, as an outbreak continues, the proportion of infections arising from hosts with few symptoms changes in response to control measures. A high proportion of infections from hosts with few symptoms after the initial stages of an outbreak is only problematic if the rate of new infections remains high. Otherwise, it can simply indicate that symptomatic transmissions are being prevented successfully. This should be considered when interpreting estimates of the extent of transmission from hosts with few COVID-19 symptoms.


Author(s):  
Sung-mok Jung ◽  
Andrei R. Akhmetzhanov ◽  
Katsuma Hayashi ◽  
Natalie M. Linton ◽  
Yichi Yang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe exported cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection that were confirmed outside of China provide an opportunity to estimate the cumulative incidence and confirmed case fatality risk (cCFR) in mainland China. Knowledge of the cCFR is critical to characterize the severity and understand the pandemic potential of COVID-19 in the early stage of the epidemic. Using the exponential growth rate of the incidence, the present study statistically estimated the cCFR and the basic reproduction number—the average number of secondary cases generated by a single primary case in a naïve population. We modeled epidemic growth either from a single index case with illness onset on 8 December, 2019 (Scenario 1), or using the growth rate fitted along with the other parameters (Scenario 2) based on data from 20 exported cases reported by 24 January, 2020. The cumulative incidence in China by 24 January was estimated at 6924 cases (95% CI: 4885, 9211) and 19,289 cases (95% CI: 10,901, 30,158), respectively. The latest estimated values of the cCFR were 5.3% (95% CI: 3.5%, 7.5%) for Scenario 1 and 8.4% (95% CI: 5.3%, 12.3%) for Scenario 2. The basic reproduction number was estimated to be 2.1 (95% CI: 2.0, 2.2) and 3.2 (95% CI: 2.7, 3.7) for Scenarios 1 and 2, respectively. Based on these results, we argued that the current COVID-19 epidemic has a substantial potential for causing a pandemic. The proposed approach provides insights in early risk assessment using publicly available data.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Olaniyi ◽  
O.S. Obabiyi ◽  
K.O. Okosun ◽  
A.T. Oladipo ◽  
S.O. Adewale

Abstract The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a new strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains the current global health challenge. In this paper, an epidemic model based on system of ordinary differential equations is formulated by taking into account the transmission routes from symptomatic, asymptomatic and hospitalized individuals. The model is fitted to the corresponding cumulative number of hospitalized individuals (active cases) reported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and parameterized using the least squares method. The basic reproduction number which measures the potential spread of COVID-19 in the population is computed using the next generation operator method. Further, Lyapunov function is constructed to investigate the stability of the model around a disease-free equilibrium point. It is shown that the model has a globally asymptotically stable disease-free equilibrium if the basic reproduction number of the novel coronavirus transmission is less than one. Sensitivities of the model to changes in parameters are explored. It is revealed further that the basic reproduction number can be brought to a value less than one in Nigeria, if the current effective transmission rate of the disease can be reduced by 50%. Otherwise, the number of active cases may get up to 2.5% of the total estimated population. In addition, two time-dependent control variables, namely preventive and management measures, are considered to mitigate the damaging effects of the disease using Pontryagin's maximum principle. The most cost-effective control measure is determined through cost-effectiveness analysis. Numerical simulations of the overall system are implemented in MatLab® for demonstration of the theoretical results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-mok Jung ◽  
Andrei R. Akhmetzhanov ◽  
Katsuma Hayashi ◽  
Natalie M. Linton ◽  
Yichi Yang ◽  
...  

The exported cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection that were confirmed outside China provide an opportunity to estimate the cumulative incidence and confirmed case fatality risk (cCFR) in mainland China. Knowledge of the cCFR is critical to characterize the severity and understand the pandemic potential of COVID-19 in the early stage of the epidemic. Using the exponential growth rate of the incidence, the present study statistically estimated the cCFR and the basic reproduction number—the average number of secondary cases generated by a single primary case in a naïve population. We modeled epidemic growth either from a single index case with illness onset on 8 December 2019 (Scenario 1), or using the growth rate fitted along with the other parameters (Scenario 2) based on data from 20 exported cases reported by 24 January 2020. The cumulative incidence in China by 24 January was estimated at 6924 cases (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4885, 9211) and 19,289 cases (95% CI: 10,901, 30,158), respectively. The latest estimated values of the cCFR were 5.3% (95% CI: 3.5%, 7.5%) for Scenario 1 and 8.4% (95% CI: 5.3%, 12.3%) for Scenario 2. The basic reproduction number was estimated to be 2.1 (95% CI: 2.0, 2.2) and 3.2 (95% CI: 2.7, 3.7) for Scenarios 1 and 2, respectively. Based on these results, we argued that the current COVID-19 epidemic has a substantial potential for causing a pandemic. The proposed approach provides insights in early risk assessment using publicly available data.


Author(s):  
Ebrahim Sahafizadeh ◽  
Samaneh Sartoli

AbstractBackgroundAs reported by Iranian governments, the first cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections confirmed in Qom, Iran on February 19, 2020 (30 Bahman 1398). The number of identified cases afterward increased rapidly and the novel coronavirus spread to all provinces of the country. This study aimed to fit an epidemic model to the reported cases data to estimate the basic reproduction number (R0) of COVID-19 in Iran.MethodsWe used data from February 21, 2020, to April 21, 2020, on the number of cases reported by Iranian governments and we employed the SIR (Susceptible-Infectious-Removed) epidemic spreading model to fit the transmission model to the reported cases data by tuning the parameters in order to estimate the basic reproduction number of COVID-19 in Iran.ResultsThe value of reproduction number was estimated 4.86 in the first week and 4.5 in the second week. it decreased from 4.29 to 2.37 in the next four weeks. At the seventh week of the outbreak the reproduction number was reduced below one.ConclusionsThe results indicate that the basic reproduction number of COVID-19 was significantly larger than one in the early stages of the outbreak. However, implementing social distancing and preventing travelling on Nowruz (Persian New Year) effectively reduced the reproduction number. Although the results indicate that reproduction number is below one, it is necessary to continue social distancing and control travelling to prevent causing a second wave of outbreak.


Author(s):  
Zian Zhuang ◽  
Shi Zhao ◽  
Qianying Lin ◽  
Peihua Cao ◽  
Yijun Lou ◽  
...  

AbstractThe novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Republic of Korea has caused 3736 cases and 18 deaths by 1 March 2020. We modeled the transmission process in Republic of Korea with a stochastic model and estimated the basic reproduction number R0 as 2.6 (95%CI: 2.3-2.9) and 3.2 (95%CI: 2.9-3.5), under the assumption that the exponential growth starting 31 January and 5 February, 2020, respectively. Estimates of dispersion term (k) were larger than 10 significantly, which implies few super-spreading events..


Author(s):  
R. Schlickeiser ◽  
M. Kröger

The box-shaped serial interval distribution and the analytical solution of the Susceptible Infectious-Recovered (SIR)-epidemics model with a constant time-independent ratio of the recovery (μ0) to infection rate (a0) are used to calculate the effective reproduction factor and the basic reproduction number R0. The latter depends on the positively valued net infection number x = 13.5(a0 − μ0) as R0(x) = x(1 − e−x)−1 which for all values of x is greater unity. This dependence differs from the simple relation R0 = a0/μ0. With the earlier determination of the values of k and a0 of the Covid-19 pandemic waves in 71 countries the net infection rates and the basic reproduction numbers for these countries are calculated.


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