Evaluating the impact of multiple factors on the control of COVID-19 epidemic: A modelling analysis using India as a case study

The currently ongoing COVID-19 outbreak remains a global health concern. Understanding the transmission modes of COVID-19 can help develop more effective prevention and control strategies. In this study, we devise a two-strain nonlinear dynamical model with the purpose to shed light on the effect of multiple factors on the outbreak of the epidemic. Our targeted model incorporates the simultaneous transmission of the mutant strain and wild strain, environmental transmission and the implementation of vaccination, in the context of shortage of essential medical resources. By using the nonlinear least-square method, the model is validated based on the daily case data of the second COVID-19 wave in India, which has triggered a heavy load of confirmed cases. We present the formula for the effective reproduction number and give an estimate of it over the time. By conducting Latin Hyperbolic Sampling (LHS), evaluating the partial rank correlation coefficients (PRCCs) and other sensitivity analysis, we have found that increasing the transmission probability in contact with the mutant strain, the proportion of infecteds with mutant strain, the ratio of probability of the vaccinated individuals being infected, or the indirect transmission rate, all could aggravate the outbreak by raising the total number of deaths. We also found that increasing the recovery rate of those infecteds with mutant strain while decreasing their disease-induced death rate, or raising the vaccination rate, both could alleviate the outbreak by reducing the deaths. Our results demonstrate that reducing the prevalence of the mutant strain, improving the clearance of the virus in the environment, and strengthening the ability to treat infected individuals are critical to mitigate and control the spread of COVID-19, especially in the resource-constrained regions.