Modelling the early phase of the Belgian COVID-19 epidemic using a stochastic compartmental model and studying its implied future trajectories

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Abstract

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.29.20142851: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    To assess the impact of these measures, we utilize social contact matrices derived using the online SOCRATES tool [4], developed for social contact data sharing and assessment of mitigation strategies, and including survey data for various locations, i.e, home, work, school, transport, leisure and other places.
    SOCRATES
    suggested: (Socrates, RRID:SCR_006411)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our work suffers from several limitations. The uncertainty regarding the estimate of the reproduction number on May 4 arises solely from the uncertainty regarding the pre-lockdown reproduction number, given the fact that the uncertainty with regard to the impact of the lockdown (in terms of social contact behavior and non-pharmaceutical interventions) depends on the contact matrix used, hence, this source of variability is absent after selecting the “intervention” contact matrix that provides the best fit to the data. Needless to say, quantification of the effect of the lockdown on the reproduction number compared to the pre-lockdown reproduction number is only possible by assuming the contact behavior prior to the lockdown to be fixed and by having the proportionality factor q in the social contact hypothesis to be time-invariant [12]. In our model, the reduction in transmission of COVID-19 is completely attributed to a reduction in social contacts rather than changes in transmissibility due to e.g., use of masks, keeping distance when contacting persons, etc. However, since social contact data collected during the pandemic was unavailable at the start of this project, we were unable to disentangle these effects. A social contact survey (CoMix) done during the lockdown in Belgium measured a reduction of 80% in the overall number of contacts with respect to the pre-lockdown situation [32]. The contact matrix of our best fit model implies an overall median reduction in number ...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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