Data driven high resolution modeling and spatial analyses of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
- The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread around the world with over 100 million infections to date, and currently many countries are fighting the second wave of infections. With neither sufficient vaccination capacity nor effective medication, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) remain the measure of choice.
However, NPIs place a great burden on society, the mental health of individuals, and economics. Therefore the cost/benefit ratio must be carefully balanced and a target-oriented small-scale implementation of these NPIs could help achieve this balance.
To this end, we introduce a modified SEIRD-class compartment model and parametrize it locally for all 412 districts of Germany. The NPIs are modeled at district level by time varying contact rates. This high spatial resolution makes it possible to apply geostatistical methods to analyse the spatial patterns of the pandemic in Germany and to compare the results of different spatial resolutions.
We find that the modified SEIRD model can successfully be fitted to the COVID-19The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread around the world with over 100 million infections to date, and currently many countries are fighting the second wave of infections. With neither sufficient vaccination capacity nor effective medication, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) remain the measure of choice.
However, NPIs place a great burden on society, the mental health of individuals, and economics. Therefore the cost/benefit ratio must be carefully balanced and a target-oriented small-scale implementation of these NPIs could help achieve this balance.
To this end, we introduce a modified SEIRD-class compartment model and parametrize it locally for all 412 districts of Germany. The NPIs are modeled at district level by time varying contact rates. This high spatial resolution makes it possible to apply geostatistical methods to analyse the spatial patterns of the pandemic in Germany and to compare the results of different spatial resolutions.
We find that the modified SEIRD model can successfully be fitted to the COVID-19 cases in German districts, states, and also nationwide. We propose the correlation length as a further measure, besides the weekly incidence rates, to describe the current situation of the epidemic.…
| Author details: | Lennart SchülerORCiDGND, Justin M. Calabrese, Sabine AttingerORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254660 |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34407071 |
| Title of parent work (English): | PLoS one |
| Publisher: | PLoS |
| Place of publishing: | San Fransisco |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2021/08/18 |
| Publication year: | 2021 |
| Release date: | 2024/06/07 |
| Volume: | 16 |
| Issue: | 8 |
| Article number: | e0254660 |
| Number of pages: | 14 |
| Funding institution: | Center of Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) - Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF); Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK); Where2Test project - SMWK [100525661] |
| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Geowissenschaften |
| DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 55 Geowissenschaften, Geologie / 550 Geowissenschaften |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
| DOAJ gelistet | |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
