Modelling transmission and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
Loading...
Download
Associated Records
Authors
File Licence
Editors
Date
2020-12-01
Source Title
Nature Communications
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
Melbourne Authors
Affiliation
Computing and Information Systems
Document Type
Journal Article
Subject Code
Citation
Chang, S. L., Harding, N., Zachreson, C., Cliff, O. M. & Prokopenko, M. (2020). Modelling transmission and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Nature Communications, 11 (1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19393-6.
Access Status
Open Access
Access URL
Open Access URL
Open Access at PMC
Linked Resource URL
NHMRC Grant Code
ARC Grant Code
Description
Abstract
There is a continuing debate on relative benefits of various mitigation and suppression strategies aimed to control the spread of COVID-19. Here we report the results of agent-based modelling using a fine-grained computational simulation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. This model is calibrated to match key characteristics of COVID-19 transmission. An important calibration outcome is the age-dependent fraction of symptomatic cases, with this fraction for children found to be one-fifth of such fraction for adults. We apply the model to compare several intervention strategies, including restrictions on international air travel, case isolation, home quarantine, social distancing with varying levels of compliance, and school closures. School closures are not found to bring decisive benefits unless coupled with high level of social distancing compliance. We report several trade-offs, and an important transition across the levels of social distancing compliance, in the range between 70% and 80% levels, with compliance at the 90% level found to control the disease within 13-14 weeks, when coupled with effective case isolation and international travel restrictions.