Time series model for forecasting the number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had an unprecedented effect on bothnations and health systems. Time series modeling using Auto-Regressive IntegratedMoving Averages (ARIMA) models have been used to forecast variables extensively instatistics and econometrics. We aimed to predict the total number of cases for COVID19using ARIMA models of time-series analysis in Turkey.Methods: We used timeseries analysis to build an ARIMA model of the total number of cases from March 11,2020 to August 24, 2020 and used the model to predict cases in the following 14 days,from August 25, 2020 to September 7, 2020. Hyndman and Khandakar algorithm wasused to select components of ARIMA models. Percentage error was used to evaluateforecasting accuracy.Results: During the model building period, 259692 cases werediagnosed and during 14 days of validation period additional 21817 new cases wereadded. ARIMA model with (p,d,q) components of (4, 2, 0) was used for forecasting.The mean percentage error of forecast was 0.20% and forecast accuracy was highestin the two weeks of forecasting. Conclusion: ARIMA models can be used to forecastthe total number of cases of COVID-19 patients for the upcoming two weeks in Turkey