Estimating the Containment Effectiveness and Economic Cost of Inner-city Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Xihan, Liu, Yuqing, Zhao, Chen, Li, Guijun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zhang, Xihan
Liu, Yuqing
Zhao, Chen
Li, Guijun
author_facet Zhang, Xihan
Liu, Yuqing
Zhao, Chen
Li, Guijun
contents Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are crucial for controlling pandemics, but existing research often overlooks the heterogeneity of individual behavior, which can lead to inaccurate evaluations of the effectiveness of strategies. In this paper, we use a large dataset of fine-grained real-world individual trajectory data from a major Chinese city to examine the trade-off between the epidemic containment effectiveness and economic cost of different NPIs. Our findings reveal significant variations in the outcomes of different NPIs across activation mechanisms and initial scales of undetected transmission. Based on these results, we construct a two-dimensional evaluation framework that comprehensively evaluates the impact of both the containment effectiveness and economic cost, which suggests that implementing stringent strategies-such as lockdown or contact tracing-at low activation thresholds can achieve optimal epidemic control with minimal economic cost. Our study provides a data-driven decision-making framework for understanding the implementation effectiveness and applicability of emergency management policies within urban systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_06207
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Estimating the Containment Effectiveness and Economic Cost of Inner-city Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
Zhang, Xihan
Liu, Yuqing
Zhao, Chen
Li, Guijun
Physics and Society
Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are crucial for controlling pandemics, but existing research often overlooks the heterogeneity of individual behavior, which can lead to inaccurate evaluations of the effectiveness of strategies. In this paper, we use a large dataset of fine-grained real-world individual trajectory data from a major Chinese city to examine the trade-off between the epidemic containment effectiveness and economic cost of different NPIs. Our findings reveal significant variations in the outcomes of different NPIs across activation mechanisms and initial scales of undetected transmission. Based on these results, we construct a two-dimensional evaluation framework that comprehensively evaluates the impact of both the containment effectiveness and economic cost, which suggests that implementing stringent strategies-such as lockdown or contact tracing-at low activation thresholds can achieve optimal epidemic control with minimal economic cost. Our study provides a data-driven decision-making framework for understanding the implementation effectiveness and applicability of emergency management policies within urban systems.
title Estimating the Containment Effectiveness and Economic Cost of Inner-city Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06207