标题: Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Omicron Wave of COVID-19 in the United States

作者: Zhang, SY (Zhang, Siyuan); Liu, LR (Liu, Liran); Meng, QX (Meng, Qingxiang); Zhang, YX (Zhang, Yixuan); Yang, H (Yang, He); Xu, G (Xu, Gang)

来源出版物: TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE卷: 8期: 7文献号: 349 DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed8070349出版年: JUL 2023

摘要: COVID-19 has undergone multiple mutations, with the Omicron variant proving to be highly contagious and rapidly spreading across many countries. The United States was severely hit by the Omicron variant. However, it was still unclear how Omicron transferred across the United States. Here, we collected daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in each county from 1 December 2021 to 28 February 2022 as the Omicron wave. We adopted space-time scan statistics, the Hoover index, and trajectories of the epicenter to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of the Omicron wave of COVID-19. The results showed that the highest and earliest cluster was located in the Northeast. The Hoover index for both cases and deaths exhibited phases of rapid decline, slow decline, and relative stability, indicating a rapid spread of the Omicron wave across the country. The Hoover index for deaths was consistently higher than that for cases. The epicenter of cases and deaths shifted from the west to the east, then southwest. Nevertheless, cases were more widespread than deaths, with a lag in mortality data. This study uncovers the spatiotemporal patterns of Omicron transmission in the United States, and its underlying mechanisms deserve further exploration.

作者关键词: COVID-19; infectious diseases; spatiotemporal pattern; space-time scan; epicenter

地址: [Zhang, Siyuan; Zhang, Yixuan; Xu, Gang] Wuhan Univ, Sch Resource & Environm Sci, Wuhan 430079, Peoples R China.

[Liu, Liran; Meng, Qingxiang] Wuhan Univ, Sch Remote Sensing & Informat Engn, Wuhan 430079, Peoples R China.

[Yang, He] Transportat Dev Ctr Henan Prov, Zhengzhou 450016, Peoples R China.

通讯作者地址: Meng, QX (通讯作者)，Wuhan Univ, Sch Remote Sensing & Informat Engn, Wuhan 430079, Peoples R China.

电子邮件地址: siyuanzhang@whu.edu.cn; liranliu@whu.edu.cn; mqx@whu.edu.cn; zhangyixuan@whu.edu.cn; yanghe8813@hotmail.com;xugang@whu.edu.cn

影响因子：2.9