Abstract

We considered the spatial (dis)similarities in the number of SARS-CoV-2 infected cases across Europe, through the first 300 days of the pandemic. The data represents the SARS-CoV-2 Repository provided by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. From this data set, we extracted daily numbers of infected cases per million inhabitants for 33 European countries between February and November 2020. Spatial clustering was applied to define groups of countries with similar infection patterns. Two clusters of countries comprised: 10 low-incidence countries and 23 ‘remaining’ countries. Moran indices estimated for all countries, as well as separately within each cluster, every 10 days, did not significantly deviate from zero. Reasons for the lack of spatial correlations comprise differences in the regulation of social contacts, demographic patterns, public health facilities, and varying accuracy of data recording. The major limitation of the analysis is data quality, which hampers epidemiological inferences.

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