A Particle-Based COVID-19 Simulator with Contact Tracing and Testing
Abstract
Goal
The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the most severe public health crisis in over a century. As of January 2021, there are more than 100 million cases and 2.1 million deaths. For informed decision making, reliable statistical data and capable simulation tools are needed. Our goal is to develop an epidemic simulator that can model the effects of random population testing and contact tracing.
Methods
Our simulator models individuals as particles with the position, velocity, and epidemic status states on a 2D map and runs an SEIR epidemic model with contact tracing and testing modules. The simulator is available on GitHub under the MIT license.
Results
The results show that the synergistic use of contact tracing and massive testing is effective in suppressing the epidemic (the number of deaths was reduced by 72%).
Conclusions
The Particle-based COVID-19 simulator enables the modeling of intervention measures, random testing, and contact tracing, for epidemic mitigation and suppression.
Impact Statement
Our particle-based epidemic simulator, calibrated with COVID-19 data, models each individual as a unique particle with a location, velocity, and epidemic state, enabling the consideration of contact tracing and testing measures.
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