Control Strategies to Curtail Transmission of COVID-19

Abstract

Recently, the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) as a pandemic and declared it as Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As on 29 March 2020, the novel corona virus 2019 (COVID-19) has affected 199 countries and territories, causing 683,536 positive cases and 32,139 deaths. This pandemic can transform into an extremely destructive form if we still do not take it seriously. In the present 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 taken care and its reproduction number is formulated to analyse the accurate transmission dynamics of the coronavirus outbreak. Optimal control theory is applied in the model to pretend the impact of various intervention strategies, including voluntary quarantine, isolation of infected individuals, improving an individual's immunity, and hospitalisation. Also, the effect of control strategies on the model is analysed graphically by simulatin'g the model numerically.