Mobile Phone-Based Population Flow Data for the COVID-19 Outbreak in Mainland China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Human migration is one of the driving forces for amplifying localized infectious disease outbreaks into widespread epidemics. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, the travels of the population from Wuhan have furthered the spread of the virus as the period coincided with the world's largest population movement to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Methods

We have collected and made public an anonymous and aggregated mobility dataset extracted from mobile phones at the national level, describing the outflows of population travel from Wuhan. We evaluated the correlation between population movements and the virus spread by the dates when the number of diagnosed cases was documented.

Results

From Jan 1 to Jan 22 of 2020, a total of 20.2 million movements of a

SUBMITTER: Lu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9629681 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature