Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and virus spread are strongly r...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/5/517 |
| _version_ | 1797264531895877632 |
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| author | Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz Roberto Ruiz Raúl Giráldez |
| author_facet | Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz Roberto Ruiz Raúl Giráldez |
| author_sort | Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and virus spread are strongly related. However, most studies analyze the impact of COVID-19 on mobility, but not much research has focused on analyzing the impact of mobility on virus transmission, especially from the point of view of monitoring virus incidence, which is extremely important for making sound decisions to control any epidemiological threat to public health. As a result of a thorough analysis of COVID-19 and mobility data, this work introduces a novel measure, the Infection Ratio (IR), which is not sensitive to underestimation of positive cases and is very effective in monitoring the pandemic’s upward or downward evolution when it appears to be more stable, thus anticipating possible risk situations. For a bounded spatial context, we can infer that there is a significant threshold in the restriction of mobility that determines a change of trend in the number of infections that, if maintained for a minimum period, would notably increase the chances of keeping the spread of disease under control. Results show that IR is a reliable indicator of the intensity of infection, and an effective measure for early monitoring and decision making in smart cities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:30:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c0848a2ada564c719f59940e4433f911 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:30:23Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-c0848a2ada564c719f59940e4433f9112024-03-12T16:44:39ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322024-02-0112551710.3390/healthcare12050517Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio MeasureJesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz0Roberto Ruiz1Raúl Giráldez2School of Engineering, Pablo de Olavide University, 41013 Seville, SpainSchool of Engineering, Pablo de Olavide University, 41013 Seville, SpainSchool of Engineering, Pablo de Olavide University, 41013 Seville, SpainThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and virus spread are strongly related. However, most studies analyze the impact of COVID-19 on mobility, but not much research has focused on analyzing the impact of mobility on virus transmission, especially from the point of view of monitoring virus incidence, which is extremely important for making sound decisions to control any epidemiological threat to public health. As a result of a thorough analysis of COVID-19 and mobility data, this work introduces a novel measure, the Infection Ratio (IR), which is not sensitive to underestimation of positive cases and is very effective in monitoring the pandemic’s upward or downward evolution when it appears to be more stable, thus anticipating possible risk situations. For a bounded spatial context, we can infer that there is a significant threshold in the restriction of mobility that determines a change of trend in the number of infections that, if maintained for a minimum period, would notably increase the chances of keeping the spread of disease under control. Results show that IR is a reliable indicator of the intensity of infection, and an effective measure for early monitoring and decision making in smart cities.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/5/517COVID-19virus spreadvirus incidence monitoringmobilitydecision making |
| spellingShingle | Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz Roberto Ruiz Raúl Giráldez Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure Healthcare COVID-19 virus spread virus incidence monitoring mobility decision making |
| title | Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure |
| title_full | Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure |
| title_fullStr | Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure |
| title_full_unstemmed | Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure |
| title_short | Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure |
| title_sort | advance monitoring of covid 19 incidence based on taxi mobility the infection ratio measure |
| topic | COVID-19 virus spread virus incidence monitoring mobility decision making |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/5/517 |
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