02222nam a22002297a 4500001001300000003000400013005001700017008004100034245014800075520147200223580004301695650004101738650002201779700001601801700002001817700001801837700001901855700002301874700001701897700001901914856005901933D0001C000060DOH20201121165525.0201121b           ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d00aWhat are the underlying transmission patterns of COVID-19 outbreak? :ban age-specific social contact characterization /cYang Liu [six others]3 aBackground
COVID-19 has spread to 6 continents. Now is opportune to gain a deeper understanding of what may have happened. The findings can help inform mitigation strategies in the disease-affected countries.
Methods
In this work, we examine an essential factor that characterizes the disease transmission patterns: the interactions among people. We develop a computational model to reveal the interactions in terms of the social contact patterns among the population of different age-groups. We divide a city's population into seven age-groups: 0–6 years old (children); 7–14 (primary and junior high school students); 15–17 (high school students); 18–22 (university students); 23–44 (young/middle-aged people); 45–64 years old (middle-aged/elderly people); and 65 or above (elderly people). We consider four representative settings of social contacts that may cause the disease spread: (1) individual households; (2) schools, including primary/high schools as well as colleges and universities; (3) various physical workplaces; and (4) public places and communities where people can gather, such as stadiums, markets, squares, and organized tours. A contact matrix is computed to describe the contact intensity between different age-groups in each of the four settings. By integrating the four contact matrices with the next-generation matrix, we quantitatively characterize the underlying transmission patterns of COVID-19 among different populations.
  aIn: EClinicalMedicine 22 (2020) 100354 2aCoronavirus Infectionsxtransmission 2aDisease Outbreaks1 aLiua, Yang 1 aGua,  Zhonglei 1 aXiab,  Shang 1 aShib,  Benyun 1 aZhoub,  Xiao-Nong 1 aShig,  Yong 1 aLiua,  Jiming   ufile:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/PIIS2589537020300985.pdf