Corona – the effect of drastic measures and the importance of robust data

Science Magazine has published a paper authored by Branco Weiss Fellow Moritz Kraemer and others on the effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Major behavioral, clinical, and state interventions have been undertaken to mitigate the epidemic and prevent the persistence of the virus in human populations in China and worldwide. The study shows that the unprecedented interventions, including travel restrictions, in China substantially mitigated the spread of COVID-19. The researchers use real-time mobility data from Wuhan and detailed case data including travel history to elucidate the role of case importation on transmission in cities across China and ascertain the impact of control measures.

In a second article, published on Nature Scientific Data, Kraemer and other researchers present their method to gain epidemiological data from the virus outbreak as well as real-time case information to aid the analysis and tracking of the COVID-19 epidemic. The scientists collected and curated individual-level data from national, provincial, and municipal health reports, as well as additional information from online reports. All data are geo-coded and, where available, include symptoms, key dates (date of onset, admission, and confirmation), and travel history. “The generation of detailed, real-time, and robust data for emerging disease outbreaks is important and can help to generate robust evidence that will support and inform public health decision making”, the paper says.

Read the paper in Science Magazine

Read the article about the data collection on Nature Scientific Data