Geospatial digital monitoring of COVID-19 cases at high spatiotemporal resolution
David De Ridder, José Luís Sandoval, Nicolas Vuilleumier, Silvia Stringhini, Hervé Spechbach, Stéphane Joost, Laurent Kaiser, Idris Guessous
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 spreads via close contact during daily activities, forming clusters of cases mainly in households and workplaces. A crucial challenge to contain the spread lies in the early detection of these outbreak clusters, and the localisation and isolation of infected people. Modern geospatial tools leveraging the precise location of residence of patients with COVID-19 are key digital instruments that have great potential from a prevention perspective. These methods, by allowing early identification of clusters and monitoring of local spread of disease across space and time, can support strategies that dynamically inform epidemiologists and decision makers, to ultimately enable targeted interventions at a local scale.