Study modeling the safe reopening of U.S. towns on the cover of Advanced Theory and Simulations

The balance between economics and containment measures against COVID-19 has been one of the major, if not the most discussed topics since the start of the pandemic. With vaccinations coming into play, the question becomes how fast containment measures could be lifted.

In a just published study, our postdoctoral researcher Agnieszka Truszkowska with our own Prof. Maurizio Porfiri found at which rate it is safe to reopen the economy, as a function of the vaccination rate. The study is based on large-scale, high-resolution simulations on an accurate reconstruction of the town of New Rochelle, NY, one of the first in the US to witness a dramatic raise in COVID-19 cases during Spring 2020.

Other collaborators in the study include Malav Thakore and Dr. Sachit Butail from Northern Illinois University, Dr. Lorenzo Zino from University of Groningen, Dr. Emanuele Caroppo from Local Health Unit ROMA 2 and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome), Dr. Zhong-Ping Jiang from New York University Tandon School of Engineering, and Dr. Alessandro Rizzo from Politecnico di Torino and New York University Tandon School of Engineering. The work was featured on the cover of the September issue of Advanced Theory and Simulations.

 

Read the paper “Designing the Safe Reopening of US Towns Through High-Resolution Agent-Based Modeling” here.