Preliminary estimation of temporal and spatiotemporal dynamic measures of COVID-19 transmission in Thailand

Rotejanaprasert, Chawarat; Lawpoolsri, Saranath; Pan-ngum, Wirichada and Maude, Richard J. (2020). Preliminary estimation of temporal and spatiotemporal dynamic measures of COVID-19 transmission in Thailand. PLOS ONE, 15(9), article no. e0239645.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239645

Abstract

Background
As a new emerging infectious disease pandemic, there is an urgent need to understand the dynamics of COVID-19 in each country to inform planning of emergency measures to contain its spread. It is essential that appropriate disease control activities are planned and implemented in a timely manner. Thailand was one of the first countries outside China to be affected with subsequent importation and domestic spread in most provinces in the country.

Method
A key ingredient to guide planning and implementation of public health measures is a metric of transmissibility which represents the infectiousness of a disease. Ongoing policies can utilize this information to plan appropriately with updated estimates of disease transmissibility. Therefore we present descriptive analyses and preliminary statistical estimation of reproduction numbers over time and space to facilitate disease control activities in Thailand.

Results
The estimated basic reproduction number for COVID-19 during the study ranged from 2.23–5.90, with a mean of 3.75. We also tracked disease dynamics over time using temporal and spatiotemporal reproduction numbers. The results suggest that the outbreak was under control since the middle of April. After the boxing stadium and entertainment venues, the numbers of new cases had increased and spread across the country.

Discussion
Although various scenarios about assumptions were explored in this study, the real situation was difficult to determine given the limited data. More thorough mathematical modelling would be helpful to improve the estimation of transmissibility metrics for emergency preparedness as more epidemiological and clinical information about this new infection becomes available. However, the results can be used to guide interventions directly and to help parameterize models to predict the impact of these interventions.

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