Multi-city modeling of epidemics using spatial networks: Application to 2019-nCov (COVID-19) coronavirus in India

This article has been Reviewed by the following groups

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic of 2019-nCov (COVID-19) coronavirus has made reliable epidemiological modeling an urgent necessity. Unfortunately, most of the existing models are either too fine-grained to be efficient or too coarse-grained to be reliable. Here we propose a computationally efficient hybrid approach that uses SIR model for individual cities which are in turn coupled via empirical transportation networks that facilitate migration among them. The treatment presented here differs from existing models in two crucial ways: first, self-consistent determination of coupling parameters so as to maintain the populations of individual cities, and second, the incorporation of distance dependent temporal delays in migration. We apply our model to Indian aviation as well as railway networks taking into account populations of more than 300 cities. Our results project that through the domestic transportation, the significant population is poised to be exposed within 90 days of the onset of epidemic. Thus, serious supervision of domestic transport networks is warranted even after restricting international migration.

Article activity feed

  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.13.20035386: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.