[POS] Infectious Diseases

[POS-19] Analyzing Spatial Heterogeneity in COVID-19 Transmission Incorporating Human Mobility Patterns

*Junwoo Jo¹, Minchan Choi¹, Sunmi Lee¹ (1. Kyunghee University (Korea))

Keywords:

Spatial Heterogeneity,Region-specific Reproduction Number,Human mobility

Understanding spatial heterogeneity is critical for targeted health interventions, particularly during infectious disease outbreaks. Traditional epidemiological models typically neglect the impact of imported and exported cases resulting from inter-regional travel, thereby limiting their capacity to accurately capture disease transmission dynamics. Addressing this gap, our study examines spatial heterogeneity in COVID-19 transmission across South Korea during three distinct epidemic waves, explicitly integrating human mobility patterns. Utilizing the Wallinga-Teunis (WT) method adjusted with inter-regional mobility matrices, we estimated region-specific reproduction numbers accounting for travel-induced disease spread. Our findings reveal significant spatial variations, indicating consistently higher reproduction numbers when human mobility is factored into the estimation. These results emphasize the critical need to incorporate regional mobility data into epidemic modeling to develop spatially tailored public health strategies. This analysis provides valuable insights for enhancing regional health interventions and effectively mitigating infectious disease transmission.