Control Strategies to Curtail Transmission of COVID-19

Abstract

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) a pandemic and a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of 29 March 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected 199 countries and territories, resulting in 683,536 positive cases and causing 32,139 deaths. The pandemic has the potential to become extremely destructive globally if not treated seriously. In this study, we propose a generalized SEIR model of COVID-19 to study the behaviour of its transmission under different control strategies. In the model, all possible cases of human-to-human transmission are considered and its reproduction number is formulated to analyse the accurate transmission dynamics of the coronavirus outbreak. Optimal control theory is applied to the model to demonstrate the impact of various intervention strategies, including voluntary quarantine, isolation of infected individuals, improving an individual's immunity, and hospitalization. In addition, the effect of control strategies on the model is analysed graphically by simulating the model numerically.