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State-level COVID-19 Trend Forecasting Using Mobility and Policy Data

Wang, Y.; Peng, H.; Sha, L.; Liu, Z.; Hong, P.

2021-01-06 infectious diseases
10.1101/2021.01.04.21249218 medRxiv
Show abstract

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWThe importance of pandemic forecast cannot be overemphasized. We propose an interpretable machine learning approach for forecasting pandemic transmission rates by utilizing local mobility statistics and government policies. A calibration step is introduced to deal with time-varying relationships between transmission rates and predictors. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach is able to make accurate two-week ahead predictions of the state-level COVID-19 infection trends in the US. Moreover, the models trained by our approach offer insights into the spread of COVID-19, such as the association between the baseline transmission rate and the state-level demographics, the effectiveness of local policies in reducing COVID-19 infections, and so on. This work provides a good understanding of COVID-19 evolution with respect to state-level characteristics and can potentially inform local policymakers in devising customized response strategies.

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