Predicting Covid-19 Spread Using Mobile Phone Data
![](https://news.appliedhe.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/girl-1192032_1280-780x470.jpg)
Nationwide mobile phone data tracking aggregated movements of people in China can accurately predict the geographical and temporal spread of COVID-19 infections up to two weeks ahead of time, according to a study in Nature. The study analysed the distribution of population outflows from Wuhan, China, during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020.
Large-scale population movements can contribute to localized outbreaks of a disease becoming widespread epidemics. However, monitoring such aggregated population flows, such as the chunyun period of mass travel in China in the run-up to the Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve on 24 January 2020, can prove challenging.
Nicholas Christakis and colleagues studied anonymized mobile phone data from a major national carrier in China to analyse the movements of more than 11 million people who spent at least 2 hours in Wuhan between 1 and 24 January 2020, when the quarantine was imposed. They linked these data to COVID-19 infection rates until 19 February from 296 prefectures in 31 provinces and regions throughout China.
Read the full story from Asia Research News.
Image by Welcome to all and thank you for your visit ! ツ from Pixabay