Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Patterns of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: An Empirical Study Based on 413 Cities or Regions

The global economy was stagnant and even regressed since the outbreak of COVID-19. Exploring the spatiotemporal characteristics and patterns of COVID-19 pandemic spread may contribute to more scientific and effective pandemic prevention and control. This paper attempts to investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics in cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases, mortality, and cure rate in 413 Chinese cities or regions using the data officially disclosed by the government. The results showed that: (1) The pandemic development can be divided into five stages: early stage (sustained growth), early mid-stage (accelerated growth), mid-stage (rapid growth), late mid-stage (slow growth), and late-stage (stable disappearance); (2) the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases remained constant in Wuhan, whilst the mortality tended to rise faster from the early stage to the late-stage and the cure rate moved from the southeast to the northwest; (3) the three indicators mentioned above showed significant and positive spatial correlation. Moran’s I curve demonstrated an inverted “V” trend in cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases; the mortality curve was generally flat; the cure rate curve tended to rise. There are apparent differences in the local spatial autocorrelation pattern of the three primary indicators.