Modeling and dynamic analysis of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) in China

Although novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) was widely spread in mainland China in early 2020, it was soon controlled. To study the impact of government interventions on the spread of disease during epidemics, a differential equation system is established to simulate the process of virus propagation in this paper. We first analyze its basic properties, basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] and existence of equilibria. Then we prove that the disease-free equilibrium (DFE) is Globally Asymptotically Stable when [Formula: see text] is less than 1. Through the analysis of the daily epidemic data from January 10, 2020 to March 11, 2020, combined with the implementation of the national epidemic policy, we divide the whole process into three stages: the first stage (natural state), the second stage (isolation state), the third stage (isolation, detection and treatment). By using the weighted nonlinear least square method to fit the data of three stages, the parameters are obtained, and three basic reproduction numbers are calculated, which are: [Formula: see text] , [Formula: see text] , [Formula: see text] . Sensitivity analysis of threshold parameters and corresponding graphical results were also performed to examine the relative importance of various model parameters to the spread and prevalence of COVID-19. Finally, we simulate the trend of three stages and verify the theory of Global Asymptotic Stability of DFE. The conclusion of this paper proves theoretically that the Chinese government’s epidemic prevention measures are effective in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. This study can not only provide a reference for research methods to simulate COVID-19 transmission in other countries or regions, but also provide recommendations on COVID-19 prevention measures for them.