Geographical Analysis of COVID-19 Epidemiology: A Review

Abstract

Background: Since coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) emerged in Wuhan city and rapidly spread throughout China in December 2019, many methods have been proposed for COVID-19 studies. Methods: In this study, we reviewed the geographical analysis-based methodological approaches in COVID-19 epidemiological studies. Three different issues related to applications of geographical analysis in the COVID-19 epidemiology are presented under three sub-sections; namely (1) assessing the spatial distribution of the COVID-19 pandemic at different scales, (2) WebGIS-based mapping the COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) the assessment of impacts of socio-economic factors on the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic literature search of geographical studies of COVID-19 published in English. Results: It was found that geographical analysis can effectively help to study the COVID-19 epidemiology. Conclusion: The study contributes to current research on the spread and social-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords: Geographical analysis, COVID-19, Spatial statistics, Epidemiology, Review.