Practical considerations for measuring the effective reproductive number, R _t.

ABSTRACT: Estimation of the effective reproductive number, R _t , is important for detecting changes in disease transmission over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers and public health officials are using R _t to assess the effectiveness of interventions and to inform policy. However, estimation of R _t from available data presents several challenges, with critical implications for the interpretation of the course of the pandemic. The purpose of this document is to summarize these challenges, illustrate them with examples from synthetic data, and, where possible, make recommendations. For near real-time estimation of R _t , we recommend the approach of Cori et al. (2013), which uses data from

SUBMITTER: Gostic KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7325187 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature