Undetected cases of Covid-19 and effects of social distancing strategies: a modeling study in Piedmont Region
Pernice, Simone ; Castagno, Paolo ; Marcotulli, Linda ; Maule, Milena Maria ; Richiardi, Lorenzo ; Moirano, Giovenale ; Sereno, Matteo ; Cordero, Francesca ; Beccuti, Marco
2020
Early View
1-11
epidemic disease ; epidemiologic study ; mathematical model ; prevention of contagion ; evaluation of control measures
Statistics
Italian
Bibliogr.
"Background
The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is viral infection highly transmittable caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In February 21-st, 2020 the first person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was reported in Italy. Afterwards, the number of people infected with COVID-19 increased rapidly, firstly in northern Italian regions, e.g., Piedmont, then it rapidly expands in all Italian territories.
In this context computational models and computer simulations are one of the available research tools that epidemiologists can exploit to better understand the spreading characteristics of thus diseases and to decide the social measures to counter, mitigate or simply delay the spread of the infectious diseases.
Methods
This study presents an extended version of Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Removed (SEIR) model in which the population age is taken into account and the infectious population is divided into three sub-classes: (i) undetected infected individuals, (ii) quarantined infected individuals and (iii) hospitalized infected individuals.
Moreover, the strength of the government restriction actions and the related population response are explicitly represented in the model. ..."
Digital
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