scholarly journals Predicting the propagation of COVID-19 at an international scale: extension of an SIR model

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e041472
Author(s):  
Marc Lavielle ◽  
Matthieu Faron ◽  
Jérémie H Lefevre ◽  
Jean-David Zeitoun

ObjectivesSeveral epidemiological models have been published to forecast the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet many of them have proven inaccurate for reasons that remain to be fully determined. We aimed to develop a novel model and implement it in a freely accessible web application.DesignWe built an SIR-type compartmental model with two additional compartments: D (deceased patients); L (individuals who will die but who will not infect anybody due to social or medical isolation) and integration of a time-dependent transmission rate and a periodical weekly component linked to the way in which cases and deaths are reported.ResultsThe model was implemented in a web application (as of 2 June 2020). It was shown to be able to accurately capture the changes in the dynamics of the pandemic for 20 countries whatever the type of pandemic spread or containment measures: for instance, the model explains 97% of the variance of US data (daily cases) and predicts the number of deaths at a 2-week horizon with an error of 1%.ConclusionsIn early performance evaluation, our model showed a high level of accuracy between prediction and observed data. Such a tool might be used by the global community to follow the spread of the pandemic.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Lavielle ◽  
Matthieu Faron ◽  
jeremie lefevre ◽  
Jean-David Zeitoun

Background Several epidemiologic models have been published to forecast the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic yet there are still uncertainties regarding their accuracy. We report the main features of the development of a novel freely accessible model intended to urgently help researchers and decision makers to predict the evolution of the pandemic in their country. Methods and findings We built a SIR-type compartmental model with additional compartments and features. We made the hypothesis that the number of contagious individuals in the population was negligible as compared to the population size. We introduced a compartment D corresponding to the deceased patients and a compartment L representing the group of individuals who will die but who will not infect anybody (due to social or medical isolation). Our model integrated a time-dependent transmission rate, whose variations can be thought to be related to the public measures taken by each country and a cosine function to incorporate a periodic weekly component linked to the way in which numbers of cases and deaths are counted and reported, which can change from day to day. The model was able to accurately capture the different changes in the dynamics of the pandemic for nine different countries whatever the type of pandemic spread or containment measures. The model provided very accurate forecasts in the relatively short term (10 days). Conclusions In early evaluation of the performance of our model, we found a high level of accuracy between prediction and observed data, regardless of the country. The model should be used by the community to help public health decisions as we will refine it over time and further investigate its performance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Deo ◽  
Anuradha Rajkonwar Chetiya ◽  
Barnali Deka ◽  
Gurprit Grover

Objectives Our primary objective is to predict the dynamics of COVID-19 epidemic in India while adjusting for the effects of various progressively implemented containment measures. Apart from forecasting the major turning points and parameters associated with the epidemic, we intend to provide an epidemiological assessment of the impact of these containment measures in India. Methods We propose a method based on time-series SIR model to estimate time-dependent modifiers for transmission rate of the infection. These modifiers are used in state-space SIR model to estimate reproduction number R0, expected total incidence, and to forecast the daily prevalence till the end of the epidemic. We consider four different scenarios, two based on current developments and two based on hypothetical situations for the purpose of comparison. Results Assuming gradual relaxation in lockdown post 17 May 2020, we expect the prevalence of infecteds to cross 9 million, with at least 1 million severe cases, around the end of October 2020. For the same case, estimates of R0 for the phases no-intervention, partial-lockdown and lockdown are 4.46 (7.1), 1.47 (2.33), and 0.817 (1.29) respectively, assuming 14-day (24-day) infectious period. Conclusions Estimated modifiers give consistent estimates of unadjusted R0 across different scenarios, demonstrating precision. Results corroborate the effectiveness of lockdown measures in substantially reducing R0. Also, predictions are highly sensitive towards estimate of infectious period.


J ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-100
Author(s):  
Nita H. Shah ◽  
Ankush H. Suthar ◽  
Ekta N. Jayswal ◽  
Ankit Sikarwar

In this article, a time-dependent susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model is constructed to investigate the transmission rate of COVID-19 in various regions of India. The model included the fundamental parameters on which the transmission rate of the infection is dependent, like the population density, contact rate, recovery rate, and intensity of the infection in the respective region. Looking at the great diversity in different geographic locations in India, we determined to calculate the basic reproduction number for all Indian districts based on the COVID-19 data till 7 July 2020. By preparing district-wise spatial distribution maps with the help of ArcGIS 10.2, the model was employed to show the effect of complete lockdown on the transmission rate of the COVID-19 infection in Indian districts. Moreover, with the model's transformation to the fractional ordered dynamical system, we found that the nature of the proposed SIR model is different for the different order of the systems. The sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number is done graphically which forecasts the change in the transmission rate of COVID-19 infection with change in different parameters. In the numerical simulation section, oscillations and variations in the model compartments are shown for two different situations, with and without lockdown.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos I. Mendoza

The ongoing epidemic of COVID-19 first found in China has reinforced the need to develop epidemiological models capable of describing the progression of the disease to be of use in the formulation of mitigation policies. Here, this problem is addressed using a metapopulation approach to consider the inhomogeneous transmission of the spread arising from a variety of reasons, like the distribution of local epidemic onset times or of the transmission rates. We show that these contributions can be incorporated into a susceptible-infected-recovered framework through a time-dependent transmission rate. Thus, the reproduction number decreases with time despite the population dynamics remaining uniform and the depletion of susceptible individuals is small. The obtained results are consistent with the early subexponential growth observed in the cumulated number of confirmed cases even in the absence of containment measures. We validate our model by describing the evolution of COVID-19 using real data from different countries, with an emphasis in the case of Mexico, and show that it also correctly describes the longtime dynamics of the spread. The proposed model yet simple is successful at describing the onset and progression of the outbreak, and considerably improves the accuracy of predictions over traditional compartmental models. The insights given here may prove to be useful to forecast the extent of the public health risks of the epidemics, thus improving public policy-making aimed at reducing such risks.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos I Mendoza

The ongoing epidemic of COVID-19 originated in China has reinforced the need to develop epidemiological models capable of describing the progression of the disease to be of use in the formulation of mitigation policies. Here, this problem is addressed using a metapopulation approach to show that the delay in the transmission of the spread between different subsets of the total population, can be incorporated into a SIR framework through a time-dependent transmission rate. Thus, the reproduction number decreases with time despite the population dynamics remains uniform and the depletion of susceptible individuals is small. The obtained results are consistent with the early subexponential growth observed in the cumulated number of confirmed cases even in the absence of containment measures. We validate our model by describing the evolution of the COVID-19 using real data from different countries with an emphasis in the case of Mexico and show that it describes correctly also the long-time dynamics of the spread. The proposed model yet simple is successful at describing the onset and progression of the outbreak and considerably improves accuracy of predictions over traditional compartmental models. The insights given here may probe be useful to forecast the extent of the public health risks of epidemics and thus improving public policy-making aimed at reducing such risks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Reagan ◽  
Rachel Pryor ◽  
Gonzalo Bearman ◽  
David Chan

COVID-19 has plagued countries worldwide due to its infectious nature. Social distancing and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) are two main strategies employed to prevent its spread. A SIR model with a time-dependent transmission rate is implemented to examine the effect of social distancing and PPE use in hospitals. These strategies’ effect on the size and timing of the peak number of infectious individuals are examined as well as the total number of individuals infected by the epidemic. The effect on the epidemic of when social distancing is relaxed is also examined. Overall, social distancing was shown to cause the largest impact in the number of infections. Studying this interaction between social distancing and PPE use is novel and timely. We show that decisions made at the state level on implementing social distancing and acquiring adequate PPE have dramatic impact on the health of its citizens.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustaf Halvardsson ◽  
Johanna Peterson ◽  
César Soto-Valero ◽  
Benoit Baudry

AbstractThe automatic interpretation of sign languages is a challenging task, as it requires the usage of high-level vision and high-level motion processing systems for providing accurate image perception. In this paper, we use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and transfer learning to make computers able to interpret signs of the Swedish Sign Language (SSL) hand alphabet. Our model consists of the implementation of a pre-trained InceptionV3 network, and the usage of the mini-batch gradient descent optimization algorithm. We rely on transfer learning during the pre-training of the model and its data. The final accuracy of the model, based on 8 study subjects and 9400 images, is 85%. Our results indicate that the usage of CNNs is a promising approach to interpret sign languages, and transfer learning can be used to achieve high testing accuracy despite using a small training dataset. Furthermore, we describe the implementation details of our model to interpret signs as a user-friendly web application.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Della Morte ◽  
Francesco Sannino

We generalise the epidemic Renormalization Group framework while connecting it to a SIR model with time-dependent coefficients. We then confront the model with COVID-19 in Denmark, Germany, Italy and France and show that the approach works rather well in reproducing the data. We also show that a better understanding of the time dependence of the recovery rate would require extending the model to take into account the number of deaths whenever these are over 15% of the cumulative number of infected cases.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarcisio Rocha Filho ◽  
José Mendes ◽  
Carson Chow ◽  
James Phillips ◽  
Antônio Cordeiro ◽  
...  

Abstract We introduce a compartmental model with age structure to study the dynamics of the SARS-COV−2 pandemic. The contagion matrix in the model is given by the product of a probability per contact with a contact matrix explicitly taking into account the contact structure among different age groups. The probability of contagion per contact is considered as time dependent to represent non-pharmaceutical interventions, and is fitted from the time series of deaths. The approach is used to study the evolution of the COVID−19 pandemic in the main Brazilian cities and compared to two good quality serological surveys. We also discuss with some detail the case of the city of Manaus which raised special attention due to a previous report of three-quarters attack rate by the end of 2020. We discuss estimates for Manaus and all Brazilian cities with a total population of more than one million. We also estimate the attack rate with respect to the total population, in each Brazilian state by January, 1 st 2021 and May, 23 2021.


Author(s):  
Peter Heidrich ◽  
Thomas Götz

Vector-borne diseases can usually be examined with a vector–host model like the [Formula: see text] model. This, however, depends on parameters that contain detailed information about the mosquito population that we usually do not know. For this reason, in this article, we reduce the [Formula: see text] model to an [Formula: see text] model with a time-dependent and periodic transmission rate [Formula: see text]. Since the living conditions of the mosquitos depend on the local weather conditions, meteorological data sets flow into the model in order to achieve a more realistic behavior. The developed [Formula: see text] model is adapted to existing data sets of hospitalized dengue cases in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) using numerical optimization based on Pontryagin’s maximum principle. A previous data analysis shows that the results of this parameter fit are within a realistic range and thus allow further investigations. Based on this, various simulations are carried out and the prediction quality of the model is examined.


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