IMPACT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AWARENESS PROGRAMS ON COVID-19 DYNAMICS: A FRACTIONAL MODELING APPROACH

Abstract

Public health awareness programs have been a crucial strategy in mitigating the spread of emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks of public health significance such as COVID-19. This study adopts an Susceptible–Exposed–Infected–Recovered (SEIR) based model to assess the impact of public health awareness programs in mitigating the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed model, which incorporates public health awareness programs, uses ABC fractional operator approach to study and analyze the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. It is possible to completely understand the dynamics of the model’s features because of the memory effect and hereditary qualities that exist in the fractional version. The fixed point theorem has been used to prove the presence of a unique solution, as well as the stability analysis of the model. The nonlinear least-squares method is used to estimate the parameters of the model based on the daily cumulative cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria from March 29 to June 12, 2020. Through the use of simulations, the model’s best-suited parameters and the optimal ABC fractional-order parameter τ may be determined and optimized. The suggested model is proved to understand the virus’s dynamical behavior better than the integer-order version. In addition, numerous numerical simulations are run using an efficient numerical approach to provide further insight into the model’s features.