Forecasting the transmission of Covid-19 in India using a data driven SEIRD model

Abstract: The infections and fatalities due to SARS-CoV-2 virus for cases specific to India have been studied using a deterministic susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered-dead (SEIRD) compartmental model. One of the most significant epidemiological parameter, namely the effective reproduction number of the infection is extracted from the daily growth rate data of reported infections and it is included in the model with a time variation. We evaluate the effect of control interventions implemented till now and estimate the case numbers for infections and deaths averted by these restrictive measures. We further provide a forecast on the extent of the future Covid-19 transmission in India and predict the probable numbers of infections and fatalities under various potential scenarios.