an age-specific social contact characterization Liua, Yang Gua, Zhonglei Xiab, Shang Shib, Benyun Zhoub, Xiao-Nong Shig, Yong Liua, Jiming text monographic eng

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Background 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. Yang Liu [six others] In: EClinicalMedicine 22 (2020) 100354 Coronavirus Infections transmission Disease Outbreaks file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/PIIS2589537020300985.pdf file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/PIIS2589537020300985.pdf 201121 20201121165525.0 D0001C000060