Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Coronavirus Covid-19
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Coronavirus Covid-19

In the joint Fraunhofer project »CorASiV«, everything revolves around »supporting health authorities in corona response through analysis, simulation and visualization«. We contribute our mathematical expertise especially to the development of an app.

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CorASiV – Decision Support for Health Authorities

Fraunhofer vs. Corona

The CorASiV project focuses on individual support for health authorities, taking into account specific requirements and the current stress situation.

Together against Corona

In the course of the initiative »Fraunhofer versus Corona«, the project CorASiV was created, in which the Fraunhofer institutes ITWM, IAIS, IGD, IOSB and MEVIS jointly develop support services for health authorities. Based on mathematical and statistical methods, graphical data analyses are provided, among other things, which allow the employees of the health authorities to make a more profound assessment of the situation. Fraunhofer ITWM and Fraunhofer MEVIS are involved in the development of an app for the assessment of contact situations.  

App for Assessing Contact Situations

The app (link to the development version of the app) developed by the institutes Fraunhofer ITWM and MEVIS is used to analyze contact situations with a person suffering from COVID-19. In cooperation with the public health department of Berlin-Reinickendorf acute problems were identified. Based on probability distributions we provide graphical evaluations and statistical key figures. 

One use case is the support by graphical information about the course of Covid-19 diseases. Depending on the onset of symptoms of a sick person, an employee can use statistical distributions to estimate when the person was infected, when they were contagious and from when on their contact persons should start showing symptoms.

Graphical representation: Infectious period as a function of the onset of symptoms in a sick person.
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Graphical representation: Infectious period as a function of the onset of symptoms in a sick person. [only available in German]

Also under development is a functionality that uses a statistical model to calculate the cases in which a group quarantine can be lifted prematurely after a contact during an event - due to sufficiently low risk. The considered mathematical question is: People were at an event where an infected person was present. However, after quarantine was ordered for the group, there was no evidence of group infection and part of the group also tested negative. What is the likelihood of infection for the untested persons? The model is based on the assumption that an infected person either

  • is highly contagious and would therefore infect several contacts at once
  • or it is only slightly or not at all contagious - and if a good hygiene concept is followed, the risk of transmission is very low.
Graphic to enter the probability calculation for non-infection.
© Fraunhofer ITWM
Graphic to enter the probability calculation for non-infection. [only available in German]

Another question that is still under development is: One or more people show symptoms and fear to be infected during a joint event. Does the distribution of symptoms fit an infection on the corresponding date? This can mean a quarantine order for all persons present.

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