Data-driven multiscale modelling and analysis of COVID-19 spatiotemporal evolution using explainable AI

To quantificationally identify the optimal control measures for regulators to best minimize COVID-19's growth (G-rate) and death (D-rate) rates in today's context, this paper develops a top-down multiscale engineering approach which encompasses a series of systematic analyses, namely: (global scale) predictive modelling of G-rate and D-rate due to COVID-19 globally, followed by determining the most effective control factors which can best minimize both parameters over time via explainable Artificial Intelligence (AI) with SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) method; (continental scale) same predictive forecasting of G-rate and D-rate in all continents, followed by performing explainable SHAP analysis to determine the most effective control factors for the respective continents; and (country scale) clustering the different countries (> 150 in total) into 3 main clusters to identify the universal set of effective control measures. By using the historical period between 2 May 2020 and 1 Oct 2021, the average MAPE scores for forecasting G-rate and D-rate are within 10%, or less on average, at the global and continental scales. Systematically, we have quantificationally demonstrated that the top 3 most effective control measures for regulators to best minimize G-rate universally are COVID-CONTACT-TRACING, PUBLIC-GATHERING-RULES, and COVID-STRINGENCY-INDEX, while the control factors relating to D-rate depend on the modelling scenario.