Abstract
In Italy, 128,948 confirmed cases and 15,887 deaths of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were registered as of 5 April 2020. Ending the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic requires implementation of multiple population-wide strategies, including social distancing, testing and contact tracing.
We propose a new model that predicts the course of the epidemic to help plan an effective control strategy. The model considers eight stages of infection: susceptible (S), infected (I), diagnosed (D), ailing (A), recognized (R), threatened (T), healed (H) and extinct (E), collectively termed SIDARTHE.
Our SIDARTHE model discriminates between infected individuals depending on whether they have been diagnosed and on the severity of their symptoms. The distinction between diagnosed and non-diagnosed individuals is important because the former are typically isolated and hence less likely to spread the infection. This delineation also helps to explain misperceptions of the case fatality rate and of the epidemic spread. We compare simulation results with real data on the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy, and we model possible scenarios of implementation of countermeasures. Our results demonstrate that restrictive social-distancing measures will need to be combined with widespread testing and contact tracing to end the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Main
After a novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was identified in Wuhan (Hubei), China, an exponentially growing number of patients in mainland China were diagnosed with COVID-19, prompting Chinese authorities to introduce radical measures to contain the outbreak.
Despite these measures, a COVID-19 pandemic ensued in the following months. The World Health Organisation report dated 5 April 2020 reported 1,133,758 total cases and 62,784 deaths worldwide. Italy has been severely affected.
After the first indigenous case on 21 February 2020 in Lodi province, several suspect cases (initially epidemiologically linked) began to emerge in the south and southwest territory of Lombardy. A ‘red zone’, encompassing 11 municipalities where SARS-CoV-2 infection was endemic, was instituted on 22 February 2020, and put on lockdown to contain the emerging threat.
A campaign to identify and screen all close contacts with confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulted in taking 691,461 nasal swabs as of 5 April 2020. Of the 128,948 detected cases, 91,246 were currently infected (28,949 hospitalized, 3,977 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) and 58,320 quarantined at home), 21,815 had been discharged due to recovery and 15,887 had died. In the early days of the epidemic in Italy, both symptomatic and asymptomatic people underwent screening.
A government regulation dated 26 February 2020 limited screening to symptomatic subjects only. On 8 March 2020, to further contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the red zone was extended to the entire area of Lombardy and 14 more northern Italian provinces. On 9 March 2020, lockdown was declared for the entire country and progressively stricter restrictions were adopted.
