Scenario analysis of COVID-19 dynamical variations by different social environmental factors: a case study in Xinjiang.

Background: With the rapid advancement of the One Health approach, the transmission of human infectious diseases is generally related to environmental and animal health. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been largely impacted by environmental factors regionally and globally and has significantly disrupted human society, especially in low-income regions that border many countries. However, few research studies have explored the impact of environmental factors on disease transmission in these regions.
Methods: We used the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as the study area to investigate the impact of environmental factors on COVID-19 variation using a dynamic disease model. Given the special control and prevention strategies against COVID-19 in Xinjiang, the focus was on social and environmental factors, including population mobility, quarantine rates, and return rates. The model performance was evaluated using the statistical metrics of correlation coefficient (CC), normalized absolute error (NAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and distance between the simulation and observation (DISO) indices. Scenario analyses of COVID-19 in Xinjiang encompassed three aspects: different population mobilities, quarantine rates, and return rates.
Results: The results suggest that the established dynamic disease model can accurately simulate and predict COVID-19 variations with high accuracy. This model had a CC value of 0.96 and a DISO value of less than 0.35. According to the scenario analysis results, population mobilities have a large impact on COVID-19 variations, with quarantine rates having a stronger impact than return rates.
Conclusion: These results provide scientific insight into the control and prevention of COVID-19 in Xinjiang, considering the influence of social and environmental factors on COVID-19 variation. The control and prevention strategies for COVID-19 examined in this study may also be useful for the control of other infectious diseases, especially in low-income regions that are bordered by many countries.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2024 Fu, Liu, Wang, Zhao, Cui, Hu, Zhang, and Wang.)