Impacts of timing, length, and intensity of behavioral interventions to COVID-19 dynamics: North Carolina county- level examples

We sought to examine how the impact of revocable behavioral interventions, e.g., shelter -in-place, varies throughout an epidemic, as well as the role that the proportion of susceptible individuals had on an intervention's impact. We estimated the theoretical impacts of start day, length, and intensity of interventions on disease transmission and illustrated them on COVID-19 dynamics in Wake County, North Carolina, to inform how interventions can be most effective. We used a Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, and Recovered (SEIR) model to estimate epidemic curves with modifications to the disease transmission parameter (b). We designed modifications to simulate events likely to increase trans-mission (e.g., long weekends, holiday seasons) or behavioral interventions likely to decrease it (e.g., shelter-in-place, masking). We compared the resultant curves' shape, timing, and cumulative case count to baseline and across other modified curves. Interventions led to changes in COVID-19 dynamics, including moving the peak's location, height, and width. The proportion susceptible, at the start day, strongly influenced their impact. Early interventions shifted the curve, while interventions near the peak modified shape and case count. For some scenarios, in which the transmission parameter was decreased, the final cumulative count increased over baseline. We showed that the timing of revocable interventions has a strong impact on their effect. The same intervention applied at different time points, corresponding to different proportions of susceptibility, resulted in qualitatively differential effects. Accurate estimation of the proportion sus-ceptible is critical for understanding an intervention's impact. The findings presented here provide evidence of the importance of estimating the pro-portion of the population that is susceptible when predicting the impact of behavioral infection control interventions. Greater emphasis should be placed on the estimation of this epidemic component in intervention design and decision-making. Our results are generic and are applicable to other infectious disease epidemics, as well as to future waves of the current COVID-19 epidemic. Developed into a publicly available tool that allows users to modify the parameters to estimate impacts of different interventions, these models could aid in evaluating behavioral intervention options prior to their use and in predicting case increases from specific events. (C) 2022 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of revocable behavioral interventions, such as shelter-in-place, on epidemics and emphasizes the role of the proportion of susceptible individuals. The timing, duration, and intensity of interventions have significant effects on disease transmission. Through modeling the COVID-19 dynamics in Wake County, North Carolina, the researchers found that early interventions can shift the epidemic curve, while interventions near the peak can modify its shape and case count. Accurate estimation of the proportion susceptible is crucial for predicting the impact of interventions. The findings highlight the importance of considering susceptibility in intervention design and decision-making.