Previously submitted to: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (no longer under consideration since May 07, 2020)
Date Submitted: May 5, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Modeling geographical spread of COVID-19 in India using network-based approach
ABSTRACT
Background:
COVID-19 pandemic is a global concern, due to its high spreading and alarming fatality rate. Mathematical models can play a decisive role in mitigating the spread and predicting the growth of the epidemic. India is a large country, with a highly variable inter-state mobility, and dynamically varying infection cases in different locations; thus, the existing models, based solely on the aspects of growth rates, or generalized network concepts, may not provide desired predictions. The internal mobility of a country must be considered, for accurate prediction.
Objective:
This study aims to propose a framework for predicting the geographical spread of COVID-19 based on human mobility, by incorporating migration and transport statistics. The motivation of the research is to identify the locations, which can be at higher level COVID -19 spread risk, during migrants transfer and transportation activities.
Methods:
We use reported COVID-19 cases, census migration data, and monthly airline data of passengers.
Results:
We discover that spreading depends on the spatial distribution of existing cases, human mobility patterns, and administrative decisions. In India, the mobility towards professional sites can surge incoming cases at Maharastra and Karnataka, while migration towards the native places can risk Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We anticipate that the state Kerala, with one of the highest cases of COVID-19, may not receive significant incoming cases, while Karnataka and Haryana may receive the challenge of high incoming cases, with medium cases so far. Using airline passenger's data, we also estimate the number of potential incoming cases at various airports. The study predicts that the airports located in the region of north India are vulnerable, whereas in the northeast India and in some south India are relatively safe.
Conclusions:
A model is developed for systematically understanding the effect of migration and transport on the spreading of COVID-19, and predetermining the hotspots on real time basis. Through the model, we identified the airports and states that are at higher level of COVID-19 risk. The study can guide policymakers in prior planning of transport and estimate the required medical and quarantine facilities to minimize the impact of COVID-19.
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