PLoS ONE (Jan 2020)

On the temporal spreading of the SARS-CoV-2.

  • Francesca Bertacchini,
  • Eleonora Bilotta,
  • Pietro S Pantano

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240777
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 10
p. e0240777

Abstract

Read online

The behaviour of SARS-CoV-2 virus is certainly one of the most challenging in contemporary world. Although the mathematical modelling of the virus has made relevant contributions, the unpredictable behaviour of the virus is still not fully understood. To identify some aspects of the virus elusive behaviour, we focused on the temporal characteristics of its course. We have analysed the latency trends the virus has realized worldwide, the outbreak of the hot spots, and the decreasing trends of the pandemic. We found that the spatio-temporal pandemic dynamics shows a complex behaviour. As with physical systems, these changes in the pandemic's course, which we have called transitional stages of contagion, highlight shared characteristics in many countries. The main results of this work is that the pandemic progression rhythms have been clearly identified for each country, providing the processes and the stages at which the virus develops, thus giving important information on the activation of containment and control measures.