A multi-strain model with asymptomatic transmission: Application to COVID-19 in the US.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19, induced by the SARS-CoV-2 infection, has caused an unprecedented pandemic in the world. New variants of the virus have emerged and dominated the virus population. In this paper, we develop a multi-strain model with asymptomatic transmission to study how the asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infection influences the transmission between different strains and control strategies that aim to mitigate the pandemic. Both analytical and numerical results reveal that the competitive exclusion principle still holds for the model with the asymptomatic transmission. By fitting the model to the COVID-19 case and viral variant data in the US, we show that the omicron variants are more transmissible but less fatal than the previously circulating variants. The basic reproduction number for the om

SUBMITTER: Gao S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10027298 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature