Modeling the complete spatiotemporal spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in mainland China

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic is reaching its final phase in China. The epidemic data are available for a complete assessment of epidemiological parameters in all regions and time periods.

This study aims to present a spatiotemporal epidemic model based on spatially stratified heterogeneity (SSH) to simulate the epidemic spread. A susceptible-exposed/latent-infected-removed (SEIR) model was constructed for each SSH-identified stratum (each administrative city) to estimate the spatiotemporal epidemiological parameters of the outbreak.

We estimated that the mean latent and removed periods were 5.40 and 2.13 days, respectively. There was an average of 1.72 latent or infected persons per 10,000 Wuhan travelers to other locations until January 20th, 2020. The space-time basic reproduction number (R₀) estimates indicate an initial value between 2 and 3.5 in most cities on this date. The mean period for R₀ estimates to decrease to 80%, and 50% of initial values in cities were an average of 14.73 and 19.62 days, respectively.

Our model estimates the complete spatiotemporal epidemiological characteristics of the outbreak in a space-time domain. These findings will help enhance a comprehensive understanding of the outbreak and inform the strategies of prevention and control in other countries worldwide.