Estimation of the Number of Cumulative COVID-19 Cases by Day in Thailand Based on a Flattened Curve Policy

Abstract

Since December 2019, the world has been facing an emerging infectious disease named coronavirus disease 2019. Thailand has also been affected by the spread of the coronavirus. The Thai government have announced policies to protect people, based on the emergency decree and curfew law for flattening the curve of the number of the coronavirus disease 2019 cases without vaccination in Thailand. This research estimated of the number of total infectious cases of coronavirus disease 2019 in Thailand. Two growth curves, including an exponential growth curve under a non-flattened curve policy (herd immunity policy without vaccination), and a logistic growth curve under a flattened curve policy without vaccination, were selected to estimate the parameters of the curves by the least square method to represent the number of the total infectious cases in Thailand. Moreover, the maximum infectious cases of coronavirus disease 2019 and the speed of spreading for coronavirus disease 2019 in Thailand were also explored. Based on the number of the total infectious cases of coronavirus disease 2019 in Thailand, the findings demonstrated that the coefficient of determination of the logistic growth curve was greater than the exponential growth curve and the root means squared percentage error of the logistic growth curve was less than the exponential growth curve. These results suggest that the logistic growth curve is suitable for describing the number of total infectious cases of coronavirus disease 2019 in Thailand under the fattened curve policy. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT