1 research outputs found
Scheduling fixed length quarantines to minimize the total number of fatalities during an epidemic
We consider a susceptible, infected, removed (SIR) system where the
transmission rate may be temporarily reduced for a fixed amount of time. We
show that in order to minimize the total number of fatalities, the transmission
rate should be reduced on a single contiguous time interval, and we
characterize this interval via an integral condition. We conclude with a few
numerical simulations showing the actual reduction obtained.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure