References
41
A Results - Deterministic model 45
B Results - Stochastic Model 50
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1 ABSTRACT 3
1 Abstract
We built a mathematical model for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and analyze it using
both a deterministic and a stochastic approach. We used this model to project the
burden of the disease in refugee camps characterized by peculiar demographic char-
acteristics and a high level of deprivation, including lack of medical facilities and
personnel, as well as limited possibility to implement containment and quarantine
measures. Most of the parameters in our model were adapted from published litera-
ture but we used our own estimates of the basic reproduction number, R0 as well as
the lethality by age group and gender. We projected the burden in terms of number
of infections, number of deaths and number of bed-days in hospitalization and in-
tensive care, among others. We conclude that the harsh conditions of refugee camps
combined with a high share of young people leads to a relatively mild scenario for
the burden of the disease.
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
2 Executive summary
Objective. The report illustrates the results of a series of simulations of the spread
of COVID-19 disease in refugee camps using a demo set of data from the Za’atari
refugee camp in Jordan. The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the type of
information that can assist the UNHCR and camps’ administrators in preparing for
a COVID-19 outbreak.
Model. Simulations are conducted with a compartmental model that we call
“SIZ”. This is a newly developed epidemiological model with eight compartments
designed specifically to model COVID-19 outbreaks in closed and highly densely
populated communities such as refugee camps. The model segregates those infected
into symptomatic and asymptomatic categories and provides simulations using both
deterministic and stochastic solutions. Whereas deterministic models are based on
transition rates between compartments, stochastic models are based on transition
probabilities between them. The main difference is that in a deterministic model an
individual ‘splits’ among communicating stages, whereas in a stochastic model the
individual moves to only one of those stages. Also, transitions from the current state
X(t0) to the state X(t0 +t) are random, as well as the time for the transition,t. This
allows for the estimation of standard deviations and confidence intervals. Solutions
to the models have been programmed in Matlab, Python and Stata to check and
validate results.
Parameters. The basic reproductive number R0 used for these simulations is 3.
This is a low-end reproductive number as compared to the literature on COVID-19
and a cross-country estimation prepared by the authors based on publicly available
information. The rest of the parameters in the model such as residence time in each
compartment and transition probabilities between compartments were estimated di-
rectly or indirectly from the existing literature or using information collected from a
data set from Mexico [10] which has been used to benchmark lethality rates by age
and gender.
Policies. Some plausible control policies were included in the model including
use of masks, contact tracing and quarantine, promoting social distance and reducing
infection time by self-awareness. Results are presented for four sets of parameters
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
described in the Results sections. Two of the simulations include contact tracing
policies and two exclude them, and for each of these options we simulate the baseline
contact rate (no reduction in contact rate) and a 33% reduction in contact rate,
which can be the result of different distancing or isolation policies. Pharmaceutical
treatments are not included in the model since there is no known-effective therapy.
Nevertheless, if one wishes to do so, the parameters p and w in the model can be
changed to reduce the lethality of the disease. The same applies for vaccines which
would require a reduction in the contact rate.
Results
of the Deterministic Solution. Results of the deterministic solutions
are shown in tables 12 to 15. It is shown that, with no reduction in contact rate and
no contact tracing, 95% of the population will be infected, although the mortality
will be comparatively low (less than 2 in 1000) mainly because of the large share of
young people among refugees (60 % is less than 20 years old in the Za’atari refugee
camp). The simulations also show that 3/4 of the infections will be reached in about
10 weeks. Since the time to first death is also about 7 weeks, the epidemic will not
be noticeable for the first month and a half and will be running underground, with
an estimate of 25 % of infections by week 8.
Most of the disease will manifest itself in hospitals and intensive care units. The
simulations reveal that, in the worst case scenario of those studied, 1,806 and 1,052
bed-days1 are required in hospital and Intensive Care (IC) units respectively. With
the average time of hospitalization used (three days), 49 beds in hospitals and
and
25 in IC units will be required to fulfill most of the demand.
If we perform contact tracing and quarantine 1/3 of the infected individuals, the
epidemic size will drop from 94% of the population to 85%. If we reduce the contact
rate by 1/3, the epidemic size is reduced to 79% of the population. Both strategies
combined will reduce the epidemic size to 58%, although achieving this reduction
would be difficult in refugee camps [23].
The analysis suggests that it is important to concentrate efforts on reducing the
effective contact rate by encouraging the use of face masks and promoting social
1A bed-day is a day during which a person is confined to a bed and in which
the patient stays overnight in a hospital. (OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms
https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=194)
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6
distance, whereas testing and contact tracing is a less effective strategy due mainly
to the high R0 value. Also, promoting a reduction in the infectious time through
education and self-awareness is of little effect, mainly because the fraction of symp-
tomatic individuals requiring hospitalization is small, and the epidemics is clearly
driven by those asymptomatic or not requiring hospitalization.
Lock-downs are effective to avoid the virus from entering the camp. But the
likelihood that this can be actually implemented in an effective way is dubious. The
disease will enter the camp if there is some kind of interaction between the camp and
any city or village nearby where an outbreak has began. Since a small fraction of
individuals will develop symptoms that require hospitalization, this means that, on
average, there will be many infections before the first infected individual is noticed
(the time to first death is on average over 6-7 weeks), which makes a lock-down
ineffective. Individual isolation is also difficult [23], mainly because it requires the
isolation of at least all members of a family.
Results
of the Stochastic Solution. The average number of deaths and bed-
days calculated in the stochastic model are similar to those obtained for the de-
terministic model. 2 Nevertheless, there are important differences in the maximum
number of hospitalized in a day as well as in the number of beds required to cover
the demand of hospital and ICU services. Other differences are related to the time to
some events such as the time to reach a given percentage of infections. In a stochastic
model, we are discarding those simulations in which the epidemic vanished quickly
with no deaths, thus, the distributions are switched to the right of the deterministic
model and the time to the occurrence of an event is larger.
In the results sections, we also present figures illustrating the number of beds
required to fulfill the demand for bed-days, also including the margins of error. For
example, we can see from Figure 7 (top panel) that, with 83 beds, it would be possible
to satisfy 90% of the demand for hospital beds, whereas 48 beds would be required
to satisfy 90% of the demand for beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs, bottom panel).
Standard errors are included in all figures and represented by vertical bars.
The Web ApplicationThe stochastic solution of the SIZ model is also available
2Note that the parameter dealing with reducing the contact-rate by self-awareness of infection
had little effect on the outcome of the model and was excluded from the stochastic simulations.
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7
on the web where it is possible to reproduce the results presented in this study, or
run additional simulations by varying the parameters of interest. The web app is
currently hosted at this address:
https://bit.ly/3jdtOXX
Validation of results In an attempt to benchmark and validate our results,
we compare them with one other similar study conducted in a refugee camp in the
Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, and with the information emerging on COVID-19
outbreaks in refugee camps.
In our knowledge, there is only one other study that estimated the potential
impact of COVID-19 in refugee camps. This is a study conducted by John Hopkins
University on the Kutupalong-Balukhali Extension Site, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
[23]. We first compare the results of this study with the results of our study on
the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan and then compare the two models used by
these studies applying our SIZ model to Kutupalong-Balukhali Extension Site. To
note that the JHU-SEIR model also estimates the probability of an outbreak (with
probabilities ranging from 61 to 92%), whereas the WB-SIZ model only considers
outcomes following an outbreak.
Table 1 reports the key parameters and results of the two studies. The two studies
Result
in very similar estimates on the population shares of infected people at the end
of the epidemic. The JHU study for the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp reports 91.1%
infection rate with an R0 comprised between 2 and 3 whereas our study reports
an infection rate of 94.2% with an R0 of 3. Similarly, our model applied to the
Kutupalong-Balukhali Extension Site finds an infection rate of 94.3%. Essentially,
all simulations concord in finding that, at the end of the epidemics and with no
pre-existing immunity (something that is still debated in the literature), the quasi-
totality of people are expected to be infected.
However, there are significant differences across the two models in terms of overall
numbers of hospitalizations, hospitalizations in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and
deaths. Both studies find relatively small shares of people in need of hospitalization
(between 0.6 and 4.4 %), ICUs (between 0.1 and 1.4%), and low death rates (between
0.1 and 0.4 %), which are rates consistent with the latest literature. It is also
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8
understood that these low rates are mainly explained by the relatively young age
of the population living in refugee camps. However, the the JHU study provides
estimates that are much higher than our estimates. The main explanations for this
difference are the benchmark data used by the two studies for the transitions between
infections, hospitalizations and death and the age adjustments. Our study relies on
a comprehensive data set of individual observations from Mexico, whereas the JHU
study relies on information available in the literature. As it is uncertain what best
applies to refugee camps, the most suitable interpretation of these differences is in
terms of ranges of possible outcomes. This implies that preparations for the outbreak
should rely on the upper estimates.
It is also possible to compare results of these simulations with the observed evolu-
tion of the spread of the disease in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan and the Cox
Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh. According to the refugee response coordination
platform in Jordan, testing in the Za’atari refugee camp has been underway and a
facility for treatment of COVID-19 cases has been already built in the expectation of
an outbreak. However, as of July 13th, 2020, no positive cases were detected 3 There-
fore, either the virus has not yet entered the camp or it is still in an very early stage
when casual testing is unlikely to catch positive cases. In either case, the situation
on the field cannot provide any information to validate the simulations proposed in
this study.
Some initial comparisons can instead be done between the results of the [23]
Kutupalong-Balukhali Site simulations and the evolving situation on the ground.
The first refugee COVID-19 case in the Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp was registered
around May 15th, 2020 4, and, according to the WHO “ As on 28 June, as many as
2,456 cases of infection have been confirmed in Cox’s Bazar District and 50 refugees
have tested positive in the Rohingya camps.” 5 Therefore, the virus is widely present
in the district and in the camp, particularly if one considers the still limited number
of tests per day conducted in the region and the number of observed infections went
3https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/77747.
4https://www.rescue.org/video/first-covid-19-case-confirmed-coxs-bazar-bangladesh
5https://www.who.int/southeastasia/news/feature-stories/detail/who-partners-enhance-
support-to-covid-19-response-in-rohingya-camps-in-coxs-bazar.
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9
Table 1: Parameters and outputs comparison between JHU SEIR model [23] and
WB SIZ model.
Kutupalong-Balukhali
Za’atari Camp Kutupalong-Balukhali
Site, Bangladesh Jordan Site, Bangladesh
JHU Model (SEIR) WB Model (SIZ) WB Model (SIZ)
P
arameters:
Population size 600,000 83,465 600,000
Median age 16 years 14 years 16 years
Reproductive number (R0) 2.0-3.0 3 3
Mean incubation period 5.2 days No incubation period No incubation period
Infectious period (SD) 6 days (4.2) 5 days (4.3), symptomatic
11 days (7), asymptomatic
5 days (4.3), symptomatic
11 days (7), asymptomatic
Proportion of hospitalizations
resulting in ICU admission 0.32 0.25 0.25
Proportion of hospitalizations
resulting in deaths 0.10 0.17 0.17
Time from onset to hospitalizations 3.42 days 5 days 5 days
Time from hospitalization
to ICU admission 8.25 days 3 days 3 days
Time from hospitalization to death 11.2 days 10 days 10 days
Outcomes:
Number of people infected 546,800 78,624 565,688
Hospitalizations 26,500 751 3,365
ICUs 8,500 188 842
Deaths 2,650 92 565
% people infected. 91.1% 94.2% 94.3%
Hospitalizations (% pop.) 4.4% 0.90% 0.6%
ICUs (% pop.) 1.4% 0.2% 0.1%
Deaths (% pop.) 0.4% 0.1% 0.1%
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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10
from 1 on May 15th to 50 on June 28th.
We know from studies worldwide that the true number of infections may be as
large as ten times what is observed, even in countries where testing is widespread.
According to the simulations provided by [23], “ On average, in the first 30 days of
the outbreak, we expect 18 (95% prediction interval [PI], 265), 54 (95% PI, 3223),
and 370 (95% PI, 41,850) people infected in the low, moderate, and high transmission
scenarios, respectively.” The study focused on the Kutupalong-Balukhali Expansion
Site which is home of about 600,000 of the more than 1 m refugees in the Cox’s
bazaar district of Bangladesh, and we do not know how many of the 50 infected
cases were found in this particular zone. However, with a rough estimate of 30-40
cases, it is entirely plausible that in the 43 days that passed between May 15th and
June 28th, around 300-400 people have been infected in the camp. This would be
within the range found in [23]. The WB-SIZ model applied to the Kutupalong-
Balukhali Expansion Site results in similar infection rates at the end of the epidemic
but reaches the end much faster than the JHU-SEIR model. This means that we
would have expected the spread of the infection to be more advanced by day 43.
This may depend of course on the effectiveness of the measures taken in the camp
but, regardless of these measures, we should expect continued growth of infections
in the next few months.
These findings warn against complacency with the low numbers of COVID-19
infected persons currently observed in Jordan and Bangladesh. Once the virus enters
the camp, the simulations in [23] and our study show that the virus can spread quickly
and widely, potentially reaching over 90% of the population. Thanks to the age and
gender profile of the camps, the number of hospitalizations and deaths will be low
relatively to older populations, but the numbers may still overwhelm hospitals and
health care facilities. In this respect, preventive measures such as building COVID-19
field hospitals as in the Za’atari refugee camp should be supported and not regarded
as excessive measures.
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3 THE SIZ MODEL 11
3 The SIZ model
3.1 Compartments
The model proposed is an epidemiological compartimental model structured into 8
compartments as illustrated in Figure 1.
Z
IS Cλp(I+Z)S/N
λ(1-p)(I+Z)S/N
Z μ1(1+θ)
I μ2(1-θ)
H μ3(1-q)
H μ3q
C μ4(1-w)R
HDC μ4w
RTRTμ2I μ2(α+θ(2+α))
Figure 1: The epidemic model adapted. S= susceptible; I = symptomatic infected
that will need hospitalization eventually; Z = asymptomatic infected that will not
require hospitalization;H=hospitalized not in intensive care;C=intensive care;R =
recovered;RT = removed temporarily;D=dead. N =S+Z +I +H +R+RT +C +D.
The compartments are described as follows:
1. All individuals start as susceptible, S. Once an individual is infected, it be-
comes infectious immediately, either in categoryI (symptomatic) orZ (asymp-
tomatic). By symptomatic we define those individuals that will develop even-
tually severe symptoms that will require hospitalization, whereas an asymp-
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3 THE SIZ MODEL 12
tomatic individual refers to those that will develop none or mild symptoms
that will not require hospitalization. The probability that an infected starts as
symptomatic is p while it starts as an asymptomatic with probability (1 −p).
2. Infected asymptomatic Z, stay infected and infectious for an average amount
of time µ−1
1 . When they leave the Z stage they move immediately to stage R
(removed) where they are alive, non-infected and non-infectious. Individuals
in stage R are assumed to be immune, and they play no role in the dynamics
of the epidemic. An individual in stage Z can also be moved to stage R
without finishing the infectious stage if tested positive for SARS-Cov-2 virus.
We assume that testing is implemented according to a cordon sanitaire where
some contacts are tested for SARS-Cov-2. Testing depends on a parameter θ
that will be described later.
3. Infected symptomatic I stay infected and infectious for some time and will
develop eventually severe symptoms that will require hospitalization. An in-
dividual in stage I will move out of the I stage for two reasons: either this
individual developed severe symptoms and moves to hospitalization H which
occurs at a rate µ2 or it moves to temporary quarantine RT which occurs at
a rate µ2α. Parameter α reflects the possible effect on self-awareness. When
individuals are more aware of the epidemic, its more likely that they will at-
tribute classical symptoms of the disease as being infected, thus may reduce
contact rate and self-isolate. α = 0 implies individuals keep infectious until
they develop severe symptoms and move to hospitalization. α > 0 implies
individuals will stop being infectious by self-awareness and self-isolation before
the onset of severe symptoms.
4. Infected symptomatic I may also leave stage I by testing, as it was described
for individuals in stageZ. The only difference is that individuals tested positive
in stageI do not move to stageR since they are quarantined in a compartment
RT temporarily, where they remain until the appearance of severe symptoms
that will require hospitalization. Testing depends on a parameter θ that will
be described later.
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3 THE SIZ MODEL 13
5. Individuals removed temporarily in RT , move to hospitalization H at a rate
µ2, due to the memoryless property of exponential distributions.
6. Hospitalized individuals H remain hospitalized for an average amount of time
µ−1
3 and they will need intensive care C with probability q or recover R and
become immune with probability 1−q.
7. Individuals in intensive care C stay in this stage for an average time µ−1
4 and
may die with probability w or recover and become immune with probability
(1−w).
3.2 Parameters
The parameters in the model are:
• λ, the contact rate, that is, the average number of contacts per unit of time.
• µ−1
1 , the average time in the compartment Z.
• µ−1
2 , the average time in the compartment I.
• µ−1
3 , the average time in hospitalization (not in intensive care).
• µ−1
4 , the average time in the intensive care unit.
• p, the probability that an infected individual becomes a symptomatic.
• q, the proportion of hospitalized individuals that will require intensive care.
• w, the proportion of individuals in intensive care that die from the infection.
• θ, the fraction of infected contacts that are removed due to testing. θ = 0
implies no testing, while θ = 1/2 half of the infected contacts of an individual
that has been tested positive, are removed.
• α, is the effect on the exit rate from compartment I by symptom awareness
and self isolation. α = 0 means no reduction in average in stage I due to
self-awareness and isolation. The average time in stage I (excluding testing
effects) changes from µ2 to µ2(1 +α).
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3 THE SIZ MODEL 14
3.3 Comments on the model and parameters
• The model does not consider infections caused by individuals in stagesH andC
(Hospitalized). This has been documented, but nosocomial infection is reduced
in comparison to the rest of the susceptible.
• The model assumes implicitly that there is never shortage of beds in hospitals,
including intensive care units. It is, therefore, an approximation.
• In the model, stages I and Z are separated for three reasons:
– Individuals in stage I can reduce the average time in that stage with
appropriate information, tending to be alert to the onset of symptoms
which will allow them to self-isolate totally or partially. This is controlled
byα.
– It is important to keep the ratio Z/(I +Z) = 1−p, that is, we need to
observe the fact that a proportion of those infected are asymptomatic.
– Separating I and Z would allow to change the infectiousness of the two
kind of infected, if necessary.
• Although it is clear that the outcome of the epidemics is affected by the age
structure of the population (seems that lethality is higher in older people), if
we are willing to concede that all age categories are equally likely to become
infected [24] but they respond differentially to the disease, then there is no need
to write a model that include a compartment for each age category (with the
necessary associated parameters) but to apply the distribution of differential
lethality a posteriori. This will be explained in detail later in this report.
• The model lacks of a latent or exposed class for two reasons:
– There are reports [20] that infected individuals become infectious quickly,
sometimes in the first 1-2 days.
– A latent class does not change R0 nor the final epidemic size, only delay
events in the rest of the compartments a little bit.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 15
• It is clear that the model cannot be solved explicitly, in the sense that we cannot
derive analytic expressions forS(t),Z (t),I (t),H (t),C (t),R (t),RT (t) andD(t).
We will solve those expressions numerically and simulate a stochastic version of
the model. But we will find analytic expressions for the long range behaviour
of R(t) and D(t).
• All parameters above will be estimated or deducted from medical literature so
far, except λ.
• Testing in the model refers to testing for actual infection with SARS-CoV-2,
not for IgG or IgM (immunity tests). Laboratory testing always is implemented
several weeks after the outbreak when the strains are identified and kits pro-
duced, so, it is necessary to set θ = 0 at the beginning of the epidemic.
• Parameter θ, the testing capacity needs special explanation: it is assumed
that when individuals in stage I develop symptoms, they are tested and some
of its contacts are tested. θ is the fraction of all infected contacts that are
removed from circulation by testing. This shortens the infectious time of tested
individuals (independently if they are in stage I or Z) by half, by property of
exponential distributions.
• Choosing an appropriate parameter α is as follows: the average time spent in
stage I with no testing is µ2 +αµ2 = µ2(1 +α). If we assume that certain
informative policy may reduce the average time to a fraction f of its original
value, then α = 1/f− 1.
4 The Deterministic Solution of the Model
4.1 Transitions between compartments
All rates between compartments are the product of three elements: an individual
event rate, the number of individuals affected by the previous rate and a thinning
probability.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 16
Table 2: Transition rates
Transition Individual rate Number affected Thinning factor
S→I λ I +Z pS/N
S→Z λ I +Z (1−p)S/N
Z→R µ 1(1 +θ) Z 1
I→H µ 2(1−θ) I 1
I→RT µ2(α +θ(2 +α)) I 1
RT→H µ 2 RT 1
H→C µ 3 H q
H→R µ 3 H 1−q
C→D µ 4 C w
C→R µ 4 C 1−w
Since the individual rate is the rate of a Poisson process, the resulting product is
the rate of a Poisson event which is important for the future stochastic simulations.
In this model, it is assumed that both types of infected,I andZ are equally infectious.
4.2 The differential equations
The set of differential equations for the model in Figure 1 (eliminated the time index
for simplicity) is:
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 17
S′ = −λS(I +Z)
N (1)
Z′ = λ(1−p)S(Z +I)
N −µ1(1 +θ)Z (2)
I′ = λpS(Z +I)
N −µ2(1 +α)(1 +θ)I (3)
R′ = (1 −q)µ3H + (1−w)µ4C +µ1(1 +θ)Z (4)
R′
T = µ2(α +θ(2 +α))I−µ2RT (5)
H′ = µ2RT +µ2(1−θ)I−µ3H (6)
C′ = qµ3H−µ4C (7)
D′ = wµ4C (8)
with initial conditions S(0) =N− 1,Z (0) = 1, all others equal to 0.
4.3 Adjusted lethality by age group and gender
Parameterp in the model, the probability that an individual will eventually develop
severe symptoms that will require medical attention, is one of the most important
parameters that define the outcome of the epidemic in terms of fatalities. The
relevance of p is that it is a property of the disease. However, p seems to depend
on the age of the infected, p being higher for older individuals. In this section, we
calculate the lethality for age group which will allow us to estimate a global p at the
population level. We will then show how to obtain the p for a population with a
different age structure, as in refugee camps.
Tables 3 and 4 show the characteristics of hospitalization, intensive care and
deaths by age group for Mexico’s COVID-19 epidemic using Mexico’s IMSS database6.
6We used a database of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases maintained by the IMSS
in Mexico (Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social, or Mexican Institute of Social Security) that
serves about 12 million persons, non-government workers, and cover roughly 10% of the Mexican
population. The data on SARS-CoV-2 we used contains records of 26,039 confirmed cases from
March 2, 2020 to May 25, 2020. We discarded all cases with symptoms not starting in the previous
14 days to the last reported case (May 25, 2020) and from these, included only cases with disease
outcome as dead or recovered, leaving a database with 10,330 cases.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 18
Column f contains the relative frequencies of each age group. Column h shows how
the hospitalizations where distributed among the different age groups. Column c
shows, for each age group, the proportion of individuals that needed intensive care
from those who went to hospital. Columnd shows, for each age group, the proportion
of individuals that died from those who went to hospital.
From these, we obtain the raw lethality by age group u = h◦d. Overall lethality
is f′
1u. Nevertheless, we cannot estimate the lethality with f′u since we are including
only data from individuals that went to the I compartment and then to hospitaliza-
tion whereas lethality should consider all infections. In other words, we do not have
information on how many people went to compartment Z.
Estimates of the overall lethality are in the range 0 .001− 0.003 [21, 8]. We will
use the lethality reported by [8] of 86 in 100, 000 (about 0.001) because it is a more
recent study with a large number of blood donors (the possibility that conditions in
refugee camps can worsen the severity of the outbreak will be considered later in our
model).
Based on this lethality, we need to adjust u so that f′u = 0.001, which implies a
normalization factork = 0.001/(f′u) = 0.0347. We then obtain the adjusted lethality
θ asθ =ku. By performing this analysis by gender and age group, we obtain Tables
3 and 4. The interpretation of adjusted lethality is as follows: if we select a male
person at random from the population in age group 30 − 39, the probability that
this person will die from COVID-19 given that the person is infected is 0 .000811,
whereas if it is a female, the probability is 0 .000381
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 19
Table 3: Male demographics (f ), hospitalization ( h), intensive care (c) and death
(d) rates, raw lethality (u) and adjusted lethality (θ)
Males
Age f h c d u θ
0-9 0.098713 0.004506 0.000000 0.185185 0.000834 0.000028
10-19 0.099764 0.003004 0.000000 0.166667 0.000501 0.000017
20-29 0.081298 0.093625 0.005941 0.049911 0.004673 0.000155
30-39 0.072028 0.204940 0.003988 0.119707 0.024533 0.000811
40-49 0.055658 0.226469 0.006434 0.266765 0.060414 0.001998
50-59 0.038507 0.218959 0.002611 0.489329 0.107143 0.003543
60 + 0.042181 0.248498 0.018201 0.714574 0.177570 0.005871
Table 4: Female demographics (f ), hospitalization (h), intensive care (c) and death
(d) rates, raw lethality (u) and adjusted lethality (θ)
Females
Age f h c d u θ
0-9 0.095771 0.002997 0.000000 0.076923 0.000231 0.000008
10-19 0.098237 0.006685 0.000000 0.068966 0.000461 0.000015
20-29 0.087086 0.116413 0.005941 0.037624 0.004380 0.000145
30-39 0.079080 0.231213 0.003988 0.049850 0.011526 0.000381
40-49 0.060964 0.250807 0.006434 0.151654 0.038036 0.001258
50-59 0.042254 0.176579 0.002611 0.344648 0.060858 0.002012
60 + 0.048458 0.215307 0.018201 0.645610 0.139004 0.004596
4.3.1 Adjusted lethality in the Za’atari refugee camp
If the information necessary for the estimation of the adjusted lethality rate is not
available, as for areas not yet reached by the virus such as the Za’atari refugee camp,
one can use the adjusted lethality of a reference population. For example and for
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 20
the case of Za’atari camp, we can use the adjusted lethality estimated for Mexico by
age group and adjust these lethality rates using the age and gender structure of the
Syrian population living in the camp. The composition of the population structure
of Syrian refugees in Jordan is shown in Table 5. Using this age and gender structure,
the adjusted lethality for the camp is obtained with:
f′
MθM +f′
FθF = 0.000428
which is about 2.3 times smaller than the calculated from the Mexican IMSS data,
due to the higher relative frequency of younger ages.
Table 5: Population structure of Syrian refugees in Jordan
Age fM fF
0-9 0.1934 0.1823
10-19 0.1190 0.1116
20-29 0.0714 0.0794
30-39 0.0574 0.0611
40-49 0.0337 0.0348
50-59 0.0127 0.0171
60 + 0.0110 0.0150
Total 0.4987 0.5013
4.4 The parameters p,q and w
The adjusted lethality that we estimated for the Za’atari camp (0.000428) starting
from the IMSS data can be expressed as the product pqw. From the same IMSS
data, we can also estimate the product qw (the fraction of individuals that will die,
given that they entered the I compartment) as:
qw = Number of deaths
Number of deaths + Number of recoveries
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 21
which is 0.1675 (note that the number of recoveries is only among those that went
through theI compartment). It is then straighforward to estimatep asp =pqw/qw =
0.000428/0.1675 = 0.0026. This implies about 1 in 400 infected will become symp-
tomatic infected, in this particular camp. The fraction of hospitalized that require
intensive care (q) is derived from data on Iceland7, where this parameter is estimated
at about 0.25. Finally, from q, we can derive w as qw/q = 0.1675/0.25 = 0.67.
4.5 Estimation of the exit rates µi
The exit rates are the inverse of the average time in a given stage. For the determin-
istic model, if L is the average time in some state, then the exit rate µ = 1/L.
4.5.1 Infected symptomatic (I)
The most recent and comprehensive report on the duration of the period a person
remains infectious comes from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Singa-
pore8. This study suggests that this period may begin around 2 days before the onset
of symptoms, and persists for about 7 - 10 days after the onset of symptoms. That
is a total period of between 9 and 12 days. However, people who are symptomatic
become aware of the infection by definition and should be expected to take measures
such as isolation to contain the spread of he virus. If this factor is taken into account,
one can estimate the period of infectiousness at 5 days as suggested in [13]. See also
[2] and [15]. Therefore, we take µ2 = 1/5
There is no data on the variance of this parameter, but if we use a gamma
distribution and consider that subjects have no more symptoms after 12 days (see
[13]) we can estimate a standard deviation. We need n andγ such thatn/γ = 5 and
CDFX(n,γ ; 12) = 0.95. This yields n = 6,γ = 1.1765, for an average time of 5 days
and a standard deviation of 4.33.
7https://www.covid.is/data
8shorturl.at/mR267
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 22
4.5.2 Infected asymptomatic (Z)
For the infected asymptomatic, we can use a value of µ1 = 1/11 based on the
Singapore study already cited. 9, alhtough we are aware than other studies such as
[25], [9] and [11] have higher estimates, around 20 days.
There is not much information on the variance of the duration in the asymp-
tomatic period and we will use a standard deviation of 7 days.
4.5.3 Hospitalized (H)
This parameter strongly depends on the availability of human resources, equipment
and infrastructure. From IMSS data, we estimate it to be 3 days with S.D. of 2 .91
days. Thus our estimate of µ3 = 1/3.
4.5.4 Intensive care unit (C)
From IMSS data, we estimate it to be 7 days with S.D. 4 days, for µ4 = 1/7.
4.5.5 Temporary quarantined (R T)
There is no way to estimate this parameter, since it depends on the time to symptoms
onset after the individual has left the I stage by self-awareness of testing. We use
the memoryless property of exponential distributions. The individual will remain an
exponential amount of time in this stage, with parameter equal to the inverse of the
average time in the previous stage, which is 1 /5, but reduce the SD to 4 days.
4.6 Estimation of λ and R0
The baseline R0 used for the estimations in the Za’atari refugee camp is equal to 3
and is derived from the following equation:
R0 =λ
( 1−p
µ1(1 +θ) + p
µ2(1 +α)(1 +θ)
)
(9)
9shorturl.at/mR267
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 23
In the equation above,λ is an arbitrary parameter which is based on the COVID-
19 literature and a specific exercise that we devised to estimate λ with publicly
available cross-country data. This section explains this exercise and the specific
choice of R0 = 3 we made.
The contact rate λ we attempt to estimate is the raw contact rate . That is,
it represents the true potential transmission of the disease, and can be measured
at the onset of the epidemic. Countries first affected by the pandemic provide a
more precise estimate of the pandemic since other countries are expected to be more
prepared and are likely to have implemeted measures that may affect λ. The raw
contact rateλ is close to the transmission potential of a disease when the individuals
do not react to reduce it, by means of pharmaceutical interventions or by reducing
exposure activities. It is important, therefore, to estimate λ using existing cross-
country data. This will give us information not only on the true potential of the
disease but also on how much λ can be reduced with preparedness. Once the λs are
estimated, we can estimate the respective R0s.
To estimate λ, it is customary to use observations on reported cases, mainly in-
fections, which are recorded mostly when individuals report the onset of symptoms.
In our model, that would exclude the Z (asymptomatic) individuals and would only
consider the I (symptomatic) individuals. In most cases, the date reported as the
date of a confirmed case is the day a test was made, or even the day the laboratory
Results
were given, and rarely the date of onset of the symptoms. This adds consider-
able noise to the timing of the cases. Figure 5 shows an hypothetical example of the
lag between the time when individuals enter the I compartment and the reported
time.
As an alternative to using the number of infections, here we use the growth rate
in compartment D (deaths), which we believe is less prone to error in the timing
at which an individual entered that stage. The problem of underreporting is still
present but reduced as compared to infections, and the time of death is much more
accurate than the time of infection.
In general terms, once all other model’s parameters have been set, we choose an
initial λ and solve equations 8. With this numerical solution, we obtain the best fit
to the observed data in cumulative deaths and then repeat this procedure until the
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 24
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Days
Accumulated number of cases
Figure 2: An illustration of the difference between time of infection: real (squares)
and observed (triangles). The time of confirmation depends on many factors among
others: availability of tests, symptom onset, having documented contacts with con-
firmed cases, etc.
best λ value is found within a predefined region. The need to seek the best fit of the
solution D(t) for a given λ is due to the fact that the beginning of the outbreak is
unknown and thus we need to find a k value so that D(t +k) is the best match to
the observed data on cumulative deaths.
For this exercise, we use the accumulated number of deaths in 185 countries taken
from the data set of Johns Hopkins University [6]. For each country we use the first
15 days of data at the onset of the epidemic starting the day when the accumulated
number of deaths was at least 5. Countries with a low R2 were rejected leaving only
40 countries with reliable estimates. For all countries but Germany, the calculated
beginning from our model occurred before the date of first confirmed case.
Table (6) contains the main statistics derived from the cross-country estimation
of λ and R0. Estimates of λ vary between 0.172 and 0.366 with a mean value of
0.251 with countries that experienced the epidemic at earlier stages showing larger
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 25
values. From these values of λ one can then derive the R0 as explained above.
Table 6: Statistics of the contact rate λ and R0
Statistic λ R 0
Min 0.172 2.73
Max 0.366 5.789
Mean 0.251 3.975
Std 0.046 0.737
Median 0.241 3.818
Figure 6 shows the relationship between the age of the pandemic and R0. For
each country, we took as index the day the epidemic reached 5 confirmed cases.
Then we took all dates and subtracted the minimum date, so that the indexes are
now relative to the country with the first outbreak (excluding China), which is Italy.
There is an almost linear relationship between the age of the pandemic and the R0
in analyzed countries. The fact that R0 is reduced for countries that experienced the
epidemic at later stages indicates the importance and impact of preparing for the
epidemic.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 26
Italy
US
Spain
UK
Greece
India
Mexico
Russia
Nigeria Sudan
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50
Ro
Days from the beginning of the pandemic
Figure 3: Age of the pandemic vs. R0. For each country, the baseline was taken as
the date when the accumulated number of deaths was at least 5. Italy is the baseline
on 02/24/2020.
In conclusion, the cross-country exercise proposed derived estimates of λ that
resulted in R0 varying between 2.73 and 5.789, which are values consistent with the
COVID-19 literature. The same exercise also shows that higher values correspond to
countries that experienced the epidemic at later stages as compared to Italy. These
findings should be taken into account when we consider refugee camps still untouched
by the pandemic. We should use a baseline value closer to the lower bound estimated
with the cross-country exercise. Hence, our choice of a R0 = 3. However, as R0 is
an input parameter, all results can be quickly reproduced with alternative R0s.
4.7 The role of demographics and control policies on the
parameters
There are factors affecting outcomes that are characteristics of the demographics
of the population. As mentioned before, differential morbidity by age and gender
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 27
has been amply documented for COVID-19. Also, population size and density and
other factors that affect camps specially, like poverty and other health issues may
be very important. Control policies like the use of face masks, reducing contacts,
contact tracing and testing (cordon sanitaire ), pharmaceutical treatments, improve-
ment of medical assistance through increasing hospitalization capacity and adding
more personnel or even vaccination if it becomes available are all policies that can
affect outcomes. In this section, we discuss how all of these changes can be simulated
in our model (or are implicit already) without the need of adding more parameters.
1. Demographics: The model can accomodate demographic changes as already
described in section 4.3 for the estimation of the adjusted lethality by age
and gender. In essence, demographic changes affect the estimation of p, the
likelihood that an individual will become a symptomatic infected. As p is the
first parameter to enter the model, all other estimations take the demographic
structure into consideration.
2. Population density: this can be included in the contact rate. There is a
linear relationship between contact rate and R0, since this is just the contact
rate times the average infectious time. Although we do not exactly know how
much the density will affect the contact rate, this effect can be taken into
account by multiplyingλ for a constant (C3), which is the number of times we
believe the contact rate is increased because of crowdedness.
3. Household size: The household size is an important effect to consider, and
there are two reasons why we did not include it into the model explicitly. First,
household size is implicit in the population density, so, the larger the household
size, the larger the density per square km, and thus we can increase the con-
tact rate, as pointed out before. Second, in the particular case of COVID-19,
which is highly contagious, if we are willing to assume that all members of the
household will be infected when a single member of the household becomes
infected, then it is possiblle to show that R0 increases by a factor equal to
the average household size, which will take the epidemic size to a much higher
level. Since, as it will be discussed later, we can expect a very large fraction of
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 28
the population to become infected without modeling households, adding this
level of complexity is unnecessary.
4. Health issues There are several studies on how the lethality of SARS-CoV-2
is increased due to health issues like obesity, diabetes, respiratory diseases or
habits like smoking [18, 22, 1]. Most odds ratios in those studies are large with
a large SD. Including this differential lethality in our model for RC is impossible
because there is no information available on the incidence of these conditions
among the refugees. We can only think that the likelihood of becoming symp-
tomatic (parameter p), the chances of moving to ICU while in hospitalization
(parameter q), and the chances of dying while in ICU (parameter w) in our
model all increase if health issues are present. However, the amount is left to
speculation.
5. Poverty Poverty includes a wide range of factors that affect the outcome of the
epidemic in a given community. Poverty is related to reduced education (which
affects the ability of camp administrators to implement control measures), di-
minished nutrition and reduced medical attention. There are no specific studies
that analyze how poverty affects the outcome of an epidemic but surely a re-
duced level of education tends to reduce the perception of the importance of
the disease and thus may not reduce the contact rate λ, whereas lack of nutri-
tion and medical attention affect p,q and w in our model. Again, the amount
to increase is left to speculation. An analysis of the relationship between the
number of doctors in a city as a surrogate of wealth, and the number of cases
is shown in [19].
6. Social distancing and lock-down Social distancing is reflected in the model
as a reduction in the contact rateλ. In Figure 6 we saw how theR0 is reduced in
time across countries due to learning, which allowed some countries to prepare
for the arrival of the pandemic. This implies that it is possible to prepare by
reducing the contact rate through reinforcing and encouraging social distancing.
However, in refugee camps measures such as social distancing are evidently
more difficult to apply. Also, the possibility that the disease will not enter a
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 29
refugee camp is very low as camps’ supplies strongly depend on the interaction
with people outside the camp.
7. Face masks The effect of face masks is similar to that of an altruistic vaccine.
It is not very effective in reducing infection of the mask-user, but reduces the
ability to transmit the infection. Therefore, regarding the epidemic size, they
act as a vaccine. The use of surgical masks has been reported to be effective
in the transmission of the disease [7, 5], and [12] even suggests that frequent
mask use in public venues, frequent hand washing, and disinfecting the living
quarters were significant protective factors of infections (Odds Ratio 0 .36 to
0.58). Nevertheless, the large number of infections reported among nurses and
doctors that certainly worked wearing a surgical mask, imply some limit to
this protective effect in crowded environments with a lot of infected people. If
wearing a mask reduces the emission of coronavirus droplets from an infected
person to a fraction φ, then lambda is reduced to λφ. If we assume that masks
protect equally susceptible persons by reducing the virus droplets by the same
amount, then λ is reduced to λφ2. There is no information on the value of φ,
and we only can speculate on some positive value. Nevertheless, we must be
cautious since by considering that λ reduces to λφ2 we are implicitly assuming
that a reduction in virus droplets by a half will reduce the likelihood of being
infected by a half, which is not necessarily true.
8. Contact tracing, testing and quarantine As mentioned earlier, the cor-
don sanitaire consists on locating people that had contact with an infected
individual and quarantine them. Parameter θ in our model is an attempt to
account for this effect, in the sense that θ is how good we are at detecting and
isolating infected contacts. However, θ is a parameter we need to input as a
guess estimate.
9. Vaccination A vaccine that has efficacy β reduces the contact rate to λβ.
There is no current candidate vaccine and is seriously challenged that it will
be developed within a year. Even if a candidate vaccine is available now,
the testing time through phase IV takes over a year, even if all the permits
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 30
are speeded up. Therefore, modelling the impact of a vaccine is currently
premature.
10. Pharmaceutical interventions Pharmaceutical interventions or any other
treatment is included in parametersq andw in the model. Any increase in sur-
vival of individuals due to medical treatment should be included as a decrease
in q or w.
11. Herd immunity The herd immunity is just the thinning termS/N in the first
two rows of Table 2. The larger the infected group, the smaller the probability
that the next contact of an infected person will be with a susceptible person.
The highest peak of herd immunity is reached when the product (I+Z)∗S/N is
maximum, which is achieved when the number of active infected is equal to the
number of susceptible. Although sometimes herd immunity has been referred
to as a policy or resource, this is not the case. Exposing the population by not
implementing social distancing or lock-down will only accelerate the time to
final outcome and will increase the demand of medical services at any time.
There has been some claims that there is no guarantee that immunity is
achieved. Still, the number of cases reported at the global level of a second
infection are scarce and dubious. If immunity is a fact, then, surveillance for
immunity is useful in order to avoid a full collapse of economic activities in
the camp. Random testing, and in particular testing those who recovered, is
important to measure the size of compartment R at all times. There is the
possibility of deducting this by analyzing the ratio Recovered/Deaths. At the
worldwide level, on May 19, JHU reported 319, 213 deaths and 1, 805, 093 re-
covered, that is, for every death there are at least 5.6 recovered. This is a very
conservative estimate, because the number of undetected recoveries is larger
than the number of undetected deaths, since most of the recoveries detected
were more among symptomatic than among asymptomatic, and the first group
has a larger mortality than the second.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 31
4.8 Sensitivity analysis
A sensitivity analysis consists in analyzing the effect of changes in the parameters
on the output of the epidemic. We concentrate on the effect of the parameters on
R0. With LZ = 1/µ1,LI = 1/µ2 where LI and LZ are the respective average times
in compartments I and Z, the equation for R0 can be expressed as follows:
R0 =λ
(LZ(1−p)
1 +θ + pLI
(1 +α)(1 +θ)
)
(10)
We can see in (10) that R0 depends on λ, p,µ 1, µ2, θ and α. As mentioned
before, the value ofp is determined by the nature of the disease and the demographic
structure of the population and, in this sense, p can be considered as a fixed and
exogenous parameter. Changes in λ are possible by reducing the contact rate with
active policies such as social distancing or the use of face masks [7, 5, 12]. Changes
in µ1 and µ2 are possible by testing and isolation policies for the infected, which
reduce the average time in compartments Z and I, and increase the exit rates from
these compartments.
How sensitive is R0 to changes in λ, θ and α? Figure 4 shows changes in R0
when λ = 0.3, LI = 5, LZ = 11, p = 0.0172, θ = 0.25 and α = 0.25. The left-hand
panel shows absolute changes whereas the right-hand panel shows percentage changes
(elasticities). Results show that λ is the most elastic and important parameter (a
1% increase in λ resuts in a 1% increase in R0), which implies that we need to focus
on reducing the contact rate. θ andα are much less elastic, implying that it is much
more difficult to contain the spread of the disease with testing, contact tracing or
self-isolation due to symptom awareness. This is mainly due to the fact that there is
a smaller amount of symptomatic individuals that could reduce their infectious time
and have a significant effect on the epidemic.
4.9 Summary of parameters for the Za’atari camp estima-
tions
Table 7 summarizes the values of the parameters discussed in this report and used
for the estimation of the SIZ model using 2015 data for the Za’atari refugee camp.
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4 THE DETERMINISTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 32
λθα0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
λθα0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Figure
4: Sensitivity analysis of R0 to λ,θ and α. Absolute values (left panel) and
elasticities (right-panel).
Table 7: Parameters summary
P
arameter description Symbol Value
Basic
reproductive number R0 3
Proportion of infected that will be hospitalized p 0.0026
Proportion of hospitalized individuals that requires intensive care q 0.25
Proportion of individuals in intensive care that will die w 0.67
Proportion of infected removed due to testing and contact tracing θ varies
Proportion of voluntary quarantine due to self-awareness α 0
Time in Z 1/µ1 11
Time in I 1/µ2 5
Time in RT 1/µ2 5
Time in H 1/µ3 3
Time in C 1/µ4 7
Reduction in contact rate by social distance C1 varies
Reduction in contact rate by use of mask C2 0
Increase severity for camp conditions C3 3
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 33
5 The Stochastic Solution of the Model
In a stochastic model, the current state of the process is a vector X(t0) that will
change to some state X(t0 +t) in some time t. Whereas in deterministic models the
word simulation is used to refer to the numerical solution of a system of differential
equations, in stochastic models it has a different interpretation: the transition from
the current state X(t0) to the state X(t0 +t) is random, as well as the time for
the transition, t. Given some current state of the process, the change in the state
that will occur next as well as when the change will take place are calculated using
transition rates expressed in terms of probabilities.
The main difference between deterministic and stochastic models reside in the
algorithms for the transitions between compartments. Suppose that, after leaving
a compartment, a person can move to two different compartments at rates α1 and
α2 respectively. In a deterministic model, a fraction α1/(α1 +α2) moves to one
compartment and another fraction α2/(α1 +α2) moves to the other. In a stochastic
model, the individual moves to each compartment according to probabilities. If we
take a look at the model in Figure 1, we can see for instance that an individual in stage
H can move to stage C or R at rates µ3q and µ3(1−q) respectively. Therefore, the
probability that this person will move to C isµ3q/(µ3q +µ3(1−q)) =q, which is the
relative share of those rates. To decide if the individual moves toR orC we generate
a random number u from a uniform distribution in (0, 1) and if u<q the individual
moves to stage C, otherwise this individual moves to R. In the deterministic model,
a fraction q of the individual moves to stage C and a fraction 1−q to stage R.
Given the current state of the process as a vector containing the number of
individuals in each class of:
X(t) = [S Z I RT H C R D]
we first construct a list of all possible events that can take place at the next step,
along with their rates. In our particular model, this list is given in Table 8. Observe
that the list is obtained from the rates of the differential equations model. To decide
which of the 12 possible events will take place, we take a single observation from a
multinomial random variable with parameters
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 34
k = [g1,g 2,g 3,...,g 12]/G
where gi = rate of event and G =∑
igi. Once we decide which event takes place,
we update the number of individuals in each compartment and recalculate the rates,
then update parameter k in the multinomial distribution and sample it again until∑
igi = 0 or up to a specific time t. Table 8 provides all possible transitions with
the corresponding rates.
Table 8: List of all possible events and their rates
From: To: Event number Transition Rates
Z Z + 1 1 (1 −p)λS(I +Z)/N
Z− 1 2 µ1Z(1 +θ)
I I + 1 3 pλS(I +Z)/N
I− 1 4 µ2(1 +α)(1 +θ)I
RT
RT + 1 5 µ2(α +θ(2 +α))I
RT− 1 6 µ2RT
H H + 1 7 µ2RT +µ2(1−θ)I
H− 1 8 µ3H
C C + 1 9 µ3qH
C− 1 10 µ4C
R R + 1 11 (1 −q)µ3H + (1−w)µ4C +µ1(1 +θ)Z
D D + 1 12 µ4wC
5.1 Time to event simulation
In the previous section we explained how to simulate a series of transitions in a
continuous-time discrete-state stochastic process, that produces a vector X(t) at
each iteration. Nevertheless, we need to simulate the time between transitions, that
is, the index t.
In a stochastic model, when an individual is in some compartment and this indi-
vidual leaves the compartment at a rate µ, it means that the individual will remain
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 35
in that compartment according to a random variable T that follows an exponential
distribution with parameter µ. That is:
P (T <t) = 1−e−µt
If there are n individuals in that compartment, the time for the next individual
to leave the compartment is clearly the minimum ofn exponential random variables,
which is also exponential with parameternµ, that is, the time for the next individual
to leave the compartment is:
P (T <t) = 1−e−nµt
Therefore, we can simulate the time to the next individual to leave this compartment
using:
T =− log(u)/(nµ)
where u is a random number from an uniform distribution in (0 , 1). Using this,
the time to the next transition is an exponential random variable with parameter
R =∑
iRi. Therefore, the time to the next transition can be simulated as:
T =− log(u)/
∑
Ri
It is important to notice that the inter-event times are independent of the event
that will take place. That is, the time to the next transition and the type of the next
transition are independent.
5.2 Accelerating the simulations
Time to event simulations are generally inefficient computationally since only one
individual moves at the time. The simulation stops when no more individuals can
leave a compartment which in our case is when all individuals are distributed among
S,R or D. The number of transitions depends largely on the population size, and
for a population of size N it could be up to 5N , since in our model approximately
N individuals will move to up to 5 stages.
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 36
There is a way to speed up the simulations, based on the relationship between
exponential and Poisson distributions. This can be explained by looking at Figure 5.
In this figure, there aren = 8 events that take place at the same rate. Intime to event
simulations the system will change state when the first event occurs, which is event
E5 in Figure 5. In our approximation, we select a window of size W , and calculate
the probability that an event takes place in that window, call this p. Then, the
number of events that takes place in that window is a Binomial random variable with
parameters (n,p). Since the number of individuals in a compartment is, in general,
large and W can be very small, we can then approximate the binomial distribution
with a Poisson distribution with parameter np. Clearly, the limit when W → 0 is
the same as performing time to event simulation. In short, instead of simulating one
single event at the time, we generate all the events that will occur in a window of
size W . The smaller the size of the window, the better the approximation, because
the events inside W are not independent.
In our simulations, we take W = 1/24, that is, we change the system at unit
steps of an hour. This will require about 365 × 24 = 8, 760 transitions to simulate
an outbreak with a duration of one year, instead of the approximate half a million
simulations for a refugee camp of 100 , 000 people. Another advantage is that this
Poisson approximation is independent of the population size.
5.3 Matching the mean and variance in stochastic simula-
tions
Next, we calibrate simulations to reproduce real data. The idea is to match the
reported (observed) mean and variance of different stages, for instance, for the Z
and I stages. Assuming that the time in a compartment is exponential yields a
mean equal to the standard deviation, which is undesirable. For instance, if we
assume that the time in stageZ lasts on average 11 days, then an ordinary stochastic
approach to the model in Figure 1 will cause an individual to stay in that stage for
an average 11 days with a standard deviation of 11 days, which is different from the
reported (observed) 7 days that can be found in the literature and are described in
the deterministic report.
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 37
W
Time
E1E2E3E4E5E6E7E8
Figure 5: If inter-event times are exponential with parameterµ, the number of events
in a window of size W has a Poisson distribution with parameter Wµ.
The method consits of dividing each stage in several compartments with an expo-
nential duration each, so that the passage through all of them has the desired mean
and variance. The number of compartments and the individual rates depend on
how precise is the approximation we want to those two first central moments. This
Method
of approximation is called Phase distribution. [16, 17, 3, 14, 4]. In theory, it
is possible to match as many moments as we want, although in here we only try to
match the first two central moments, and we sacrifice precision in order to keep the
number of total compartments relatively small. Observe that our method is different
from the one reviewed in [4] in which a stage is subdivided in compartments with
identical exit rates. Phase distribution methods are not restricted to identical exit
rates.
Figure 6 shows the number of compartments required for each stage, Table 9
shows the required rates for each compartment and Table 10 shows the match
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 38
achieved between the mean and variance reported in the literature and the one
achieved with our approximation.
Z6Z5Z4Z3Z2Z1r11r11r11r11r11r11
I2I1r41
RT1RT2r51
C4C3C2C1r21r21r22
H1H2r31
r22
r32
r41
r52
Figure 6: Division of stages in compartments to match the first two central moments.
When an individual enters a stage, this person actually enters the first compartment
of that stage and crosses all of the compartments and the indicated rates. This will
cause the mean and variance of the time to cross all the compartments to be equal
to the known mean and variance.
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5 THE STOCHASTIC SOLUTION OF THE MODEL 39
Table 9: Rates in Figure 6
Stage Exit rates
Z r 11 = (1 +θ)1.833−1
C r 21 = 2.14−1,r 22 = 1.359−1
H r 31 = 1.899−1,r 32 = 0.983−1
I r 41 = (1 +θ)(1 +α) 2.5−1
RT r51 = 3−1,r 52 = 2−1
Table 10: Moments and their match in the stochastic model (days)
Observed Model
Parameter Mean SD Mean SD
Time in Z 11 7 11 5.8
Time in I 5 4.3 5 3.73
Time in RT 5 4 5 3.6
Time in H 3 2.91 2.88 2.14
Time in C 7 4 7 3.59
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6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 40
6 Acknowledgments
The report is part of the DFID-UNHCR-World Bank program “Building the Evi-
dence on Protracted Forced Displacement: A Multi-Stakeholder Partnership”. The
program is funded by UK aid from the United Kingdom’s Department for Inter-
national Development (DFID), it is managed by the World Bank Group (WBG)
and was established in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). The scope of the program is to expand the global knowledge on
forced displacement by funding quality research and disseminating results for the use
of practitioners and policy makers. This work does not necessarily reflect the views
of DFID, the WBG or UNHCR. We are grateful to Ann Burton (UNHCR) and Paul
Spiegel (John Hopkins University) for comments and clarifications.
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A RESULTS - DETERMINISTIC MODEL 45
A Results - Deterministic model
Table 11: Summary of simulations
Contact trace Contact rate reduction Table:
policy (θ)* policy (C 1)
No contact tracing No reduction in contact rate Table 12
33 % reduction in contact rate Table 13
Contact tracing: 33 % No reduction in contact rate Table 14
33 % reduction in contact rate Table 15
*The fraction of the infected contacts that are traced, tested and quarantined.
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A RESULTS - DETERMINISTIC MODEL 46
Table 12: SIZ Model: No reduction in contact rate and no contact tracing.
Population t0 t∗
67 t∗∗
228
(S) Susceptible 83463 27040 5011
(Z) Asympt. inf. that will not 1 24849 0require hospitalization
(I) Sympt. inf. that will need 0 93 0hospitalization eventually
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 56 0
(R) Recovered 0 31376 78360
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 0 0
(C) Intensive care 0 25 0
(D) Dead 0 24 93
Total 83464 83464 83464
The maximum number of infected: 24942 is reached on day: 67
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-9 1 6 1
10-59 58 346 87
60 + 33 197 49
Total 92 549 137
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 54 days
50% of infections 61 days
75% of infections 69 days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 78453
Percent of population infected: 93.9
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 56 by day 67
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 28 by day 73
Time to first hospitalization: 36
Time to first death: 46
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1660
- ICUs: 966
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday
** Final size of epidemics on tday
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A RESULTS - DETERMINISTIC MODEL 47
Table 13: SIZ Model: 1/3 reduction in contact rate and no contact tracing.
Population t0 t∗
123 t∗∗
346
(S) Susceptible 83463 42131 17076
(Z) Asympt. inf. that will not 1 12662 0require hospitalization
(I) Sympt. inf. that will need 0 44 0hospitalization eventually
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 27 0
(R) Recovered 0 28559 66310
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 0 0
(C) Intensive care 0 14 0
(D) Dead 0 28 78
Total 83464 83464 83464
The maximum number of infected: 12706 is reached on day: 123
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-9 1 6 1
10-59 49 293 73
60 + 29 173 43
Total 79 472 118
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 104 days
50% of infections 118 days
75% of infections 132 days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 66388
Percent of population infected: 79.5
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 27 by day 122
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 15 by day 129
Time to first hospitalization: 69
Time to first death: 80
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1405
- ICUs: 819
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday
** Final size of epidemics on tday
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A RESULTS - DETERMINISTIC MODEL 48
Table 14: SIZ Model: no reduction in contact rate and contact tracing θ = 1/3.
Population t0 t∗
76 t∗∗
214
(S) Susceptible 83463 36992 12324
(Z) Asympt. inf. that will not 1 16123 0require hospitalization
(I) Sympt. inf. that will need 0 57 0hospitalization eventually
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 43 0
(R) Recovered 0 30176 71056
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 36 0
(C) Intensive care 0 19 0
(D) Dead 0 20 84
Total 83464 83464 83464
The maximum number of infected: 16179 is reached on day: 76
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-9 1 6 1
10-59 53 316 79
60 + 31 185 46
Total 85 507 127
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 64 days
50% of infections 72 days
75% of infections 81 days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 71140
Percent of population infected: 85.2
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 43 by day 79
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 22 by day 85
Time to first hospitalization: 41
Time to first death: 54
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1508
- ICUs: 878
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday
** Final size of epidemics on tday
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A RESULTS - DETERMINISTIC MODEL 49
Table 15: SIZ Model: 1/3 reduction in contact rate and contact tracing θ = 1/3.
Population t0 t∗
169 t∗∗
393
(S) Susceptible 83463 55456 35029
(Z) Asympt. inf. that will not 1 5174 0require hospitalization
(I) Sympt. inf. that will need 0 17 0hospitalization eventually
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 14 0
(R) Recovered 0 22764 48377
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 11 0
(C) Intensive care 0 7 0
(D) Dead 0 21 57
Total 83464 83464 83464
The maximum number of infected: 5191 is reached on day: 169
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-9 0 0 0
10-59 36 215 54
60 + 21 125 31
Total 57 340 85
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 144 days
50% of infections 163 days
75% of infections 185 days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 48435
Percent of population infected: 58.0
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 14 by day 169
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 8 by day 176
Time to first hospitalization: 102
Time to first death: 110
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1025
- ICUs: 598
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday
** Final size of epidemics on tday
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 50
B Results - Stochastic Model
Table 16: Summary of simulations
Contact trace Contact rate reduction Table:
policy (θ)* policy (C 1)
No contact tracing No reduction in contact rate Table 17
33 % reduction in contact rate Table 18
Contact tracing: 33 % No reduction in contact rate Table 19
33 % reduction in contact rate Table 20
*The fraction of the infected contacts that is traced, tested and quarantined.
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 51
Table 17: SIZ Model: R0 = 3, θ = 0, C1 = 0.0, C2 = 0.0, C3 = 3 (Numbers in
parenthesis are SD)
Population t0 t∗
52 t∗∗
120
(S) Susceptible 83,463 22,547 4,783
(Z) Asympt. inf, 1 41,220 0
(I) Sympt. inf. 0 137 0
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 80 0
(R) Recovered 0 19,431 78,586
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 0 0
(C) Intensive care 0 33 0
(D) Dead 0 13 93
Total 83,464 83,464 83,464
The maximum number of infected: 41,357 is reached on day: 52
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-4 1 5 1
5-11 0 2 1
12-17 3 18 4
18-59 11 65 16
60 + 34 201 50
Total 93 (9) 554 (23) 138 (12)
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 43 (5) days
50% of infections 47 (5) days
75% of infections 52 (5) days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 78,680 (84)
Percent of population infected: 94.2 (0.10)
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 91 (8) by day 53
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 49 (6) by day 58
Time to first hospitalization: 23 (6)
Time to first death: 39 (7)
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1,628 (84)
- ICUs: 985 (95)
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday, day is the average peak day.
** Final size of epidemics on tday, day is the average end day.
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 52
0 20 40 60 80 100
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0, C1 = 0, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(a) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in hospital.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0, C1 = 0, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(b) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in ICU.
Figure 7: Number of beds required to fulfill a specific demand of bed-days. The dot-
ted line points the required beds to achieve 90 % demand. The error bars correspond
to standard deviations.
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 53
Table 18: SIZ Model: R0 = 3, θ = 0, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0.0, C3 = 3 (Numbers in
parenthesis are SD)
Population t0 t∗
86 t∗∗
186
(S) Susceptible 83,463 38,362 16,459
(Z) Asympt. inf, 1 21,970 0
(I) Sympt. inf. 0 72 0
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 41 0
(R) Recovered 0 22,975 66,925
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 0 0
(C) Intensive care 0 21 0
(D) Dead 0 20 79
Total 83,464 83,464 83,464
The maximum number of infected: 22,042 is reached on day: 86
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-4 1 4 1
5-11 0 2 1
12-17 3 15 4
18-59 9 55 14
60 + 29 171 43
Total 80 (9) 471 (23) 119 (10)
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 72 (9) days
50% of infections 81 (9) days
75% of infections 89 (9) days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 67,004 (193)
Percent of population infected: 80.2 (0.23)
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 51 (4) by day 87
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 29 (4) by day 92
Time to first hospitalization: 35 (12)
Time to first death: 57 (13)
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1,382 (77)
- ICUs: 840 (87)
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday, day is the average peak day.
** Final size of epidemics on tday, day is the average end day.
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is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 54
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(a) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in hospital.
0 10 20 30 40
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(b) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in ICU.
Figure 8: Number of beds required to fulfill a specific demand of bed-days. The dot-
ted line points the required beds to achieve 90 % demand. The error bars correspond
to standard deviations.
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is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 55
Table 19: SIZ Model: R0 = 3, θ = 0.33, C1 = 0.0, C2 = 0.0, C3 = 3 (Numbers in
parenthesis are SD)
Population t0 t∗
55 t∗∗
121
(S) Susceptible 83,463 32,940 11,718
(Z) Asympt. inf, 1 27,818 0
(I) Sympt. inf. 0 90 0
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 57 0
(R) Recovered 0 22,464 71,660
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 58 0
(C) Intensive care 0 23 0
(D) Dead 0 9 84
Total 83,464 83,464 83,464
The maximum number of infected: 27,908 is reached on day: 55
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-4 1 5 1
5-11 0 2 1
12-17 3 16 4
18-59 10 59 15
60 + 30 183 46
Total 84 (9) 505 (22) 127 (10)
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 46 (6) days
50% of infections 51 (6) days
75% of infections 57 (6) days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 71,745 (152)
Percent of population infected: 85.9 (0.18)
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 74 (5) by day 59
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 41 (5) by day 63
Time to first hospitalization: 25 (8)
Time to first death: 41 (8)
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1,476 (76)
- ICUs: 898 (88)
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday, day is the average peak day.
** Final size of epidemics on tday, day is the average end day.
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 56
0 20 40 60 80
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0.33, C1 = 0, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(a) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in hospital.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0.33, C1 = 0, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(b) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in ICU.
Figure 9: Number of beds required to fulfill a specific demand of bed-days. The dot-
ted line points the required beds to achieve 90 % demand. The error bars correspond
to standard deviations.
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is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 57
Table 20: SIZ Model: R0 = 3, θ = 0.33, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0.0, C3 = 3 (Numbers in
parenthesis are SD)
Population t0 t∗
105 t∗∗
219
(S) Susceptible 83,463 53,596 33,796
(Z) Asympt. inf, 1 9,516 0
(I) Sympt. inf. 0 30 0
(H) Hospitalized not in intensive care 0 22 0
(R) Recovered 0 20,250 49,608
(RT) Removed temporarily 0 21 0
(C) Intensive care 0 11 0
(D) Dead 0 15 59
Total 83,464 83,464 83,464
The maximum number of infected: 9,546 is reached on day: 105
BURDEN OF EPIDEMICS BY AGE GROUP (PERSONS)
Deaths Hosp. ICU
0-4 1 3 1
5-11 0 2 0
12-17 2 11 3
18-59 7 41 10
60 + 21 127 32
Total 59 (8) 351 (28) 87 (10)
TIME TO OCCURRENCE OF:
25% of infections 89 (14) days
50% of infections 101 (14) days
75% of infections 113 (15) days
OTHER STATISTICS
Total number of infections: 49,667 (3170)
Percent of population infected: 59.5 (3.79)
Max. number of hospitalized in a day: 31 (4) by day 108
Max. number of ICUs in a day: 18 (2) by day 112
Time to first hospitalization: 41 (16)
Time to first death: 68 (18)
Number of bed-days required:
- hospitalized: 1,032 (93)
- ICUs: 615 (82)
* Status of the epidemic at peak of infections on tday, day is the average peak day.
** Final size of epidemics on tday, day is the average end day.
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B RESULTS - STOCHASTIC MODEL 58
0 10 20 30 40 50
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0.33, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(a) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in hospital.
0 5 10 15 20 25
Number of beds
0
20
40
60
80
100% of bed-days fulfilled
R0 = 3, = 0.33, C1 = 0.33, C2 = 0, C3 = 3
(b) Relationship between beds and % of bed-days fulfilled in ICU.
Figure 10: Number of beds required to fulfill a specific demand of bed-days. The dot-
ted line points the required beds to achieve 90 % demand. The error bars correspond
to standard deviations.
. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a
is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20204818doi: medRxiv preprint
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