Simulating the effect of school closure during COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The province of Ontario, Canada, has instituted indefinite school closures (SC) as well as other social distancing measures to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We sought to evaluate the effect of SC on reducing attack rate and the need for critical care during COVID-19 outbreaks, while considering scenarios with concurrent implementation of self-isolation (SI) of symptomatic cases.

Methods

We developed an age-structured agent-based simulation model and parameterized it with the demographics of Ontario stratified by age and the latest estimates of COVID-19 epidemiologic characteristics. Disease transmission was simulated within and between different age groups by considering inter- and intra-group contact patterns. The

SUBMITTER: Abdollahi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7378981 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature