Effects of population mobility on the COVID-19 spread in Brazil

Chagas, Eduarda T. C. and Barros, Pedro H. and Cardoso-Pereira, Isadora and Ponte, Igor V. and Ximenes, Pablo and Figueiredo, Flávio and Murai, Fabricio and Couto da Silva, Ana Paula and Almeida, Jussara M. and Loureiro, Antonio A. F. and Ramos, Heitor S. and Gómez, Sergio (2021) Effects of population mobility on the COVID-19 spread in Brazil. PLOS ONE, 16 (12). e0260610. ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

This article proposes a study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread and the efficacy of public policies in Brazil. Using both aggregated (from large Internet companies) and fine-grained (from Departments of Motor Vehicles) mobility data sources, our work sheds light on the effect of mobility on the pandemic situation in the Brazilian territory. Our main contribution is to show how mobility data, particularly fine-grained ones, can offer valuable insights into virus propagation. For this, we propose a modification in the SENUR model to add mobility information, evaluating different data availability scenarios (different information granularities), and finally, we carry out simulations to evaluate possible public policies. In particular, we conduct a case study that shows, through simulations of hypothetical scenarios, that the contagion curve in several Brazilian cities could have been milder if the government had imposed mobility restrictions soon after reporting the first case. Our results also show that if the government had not taken any action and the only safety measure taken was the population’s voluntary isolation (out of fear), the time until the contagion peak for the first wave would have been postponed, but its value would more than double.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Oalibrary Press > Social Sciences and Humanities
Depositing User: Managing Editor
Date Deposited: 20 Mar 2023 05:03
Last Modified: 29 Feb 2024 04:14
URI: http://asian.go4publish.com/id/eprint/1049

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