FORECASTING THE COVID-19 USING THE DISCRETE GENERALIZED LOGISTIC MODEL

Abstract

Using mathematical models to describe the dynamics of infectious-diseases transmission in large communities can help epidemiological scientists to understand different factors affecting epidemics as well as health authorities to decide measures effective for infection prevention. In this study, we use a discrete version of the Generalized Logistic Model (GLM) to describe the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Saudi Arabia. We assume that we are operating in discrete time so that the model is represented by a first-order difference equation, unlike time-continuous models, which employ differential equations. Using this model, we forecast COVID-19 spread in Saudi Arabia and we show that the short-term predicted number of cumulative cases is in agreement with the confirmed reports.