Newly funded: Improving COVID-19 transmission modeling

Transmission models of COVID-19 are used by policymakers and hospital leaders to inform disease prevention and mitigation activities and prepare for case surges. For these models to effectively guide public health planning and interventions, they need reliable parameter values that represent the population of interest. But often parameter values are obtained by observations made in other regions or are aggregated at geographical scales that do not account for local mitigation efforts. Amy Kinsley, DVM, PhD, is leading a study that will quantify values associated with the duration of the stages of COVID-19 infection and transmission rates to support state-level modeling efforts. Her study will report trends in transmission rates for each state in the United States to measure the impact of mitigation strategies, including social distancing, shelter in place orders, and the relaxation of those strategies. This project is supported by the UMN COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Grants program.