Evaluating early pandemic response through length-of-stay analysis of case logs and epidemiological modeling: A case study of Singapore in early 2020

It is now known that early government interventions in pandemic management helps in slowing down the pandemic in the initial phase, during which a conservative basic reproduction number can be maintained. There have been several ways to evaluate these early response strategies for COVID-19 during its outbreak globally in 2020. As a novelty, we evaluate them through the lens of patient recovery logistics. Here, we use a data-driven approach of recovery analysis in a case study of Singapore during January 22–April 01, 2020, which is effectively the analysis of length-of-stay in the government healthcare facility, National Center for Infectious Diseases. We propose the use of a data-driven method involving periodization, statistical analysis, regression models, and epidemiological models. We demonstrate that the estimates of reproduction number in Singapore shows variation in different age groups and periods, indicating the success of early intervention strategy in the initial transmission stages of the pandemic.