Reproductive number of coronavirus: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on global level evidence

11, November 2020 | Bangladesh

Authors:

Abstract

The coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) is now a global concern because of its higher transmission capacity and associated adverse consequences including death. The reproductive number of coronavirus provides an estimate of the possible extent of the transmission. This study aims to provide a summary reproductive number of coronavirus based on available global level evidence. Methods A total of three databases were searched on September 15, 2020: PubMed, Web of Sci- ence, and Science Direct. The searches were conducted using a pre-specified search strat- egy to record studies reported the reproductive number of coronavirus from its inception in December 2019. It includes keywords of coronavirus and its reproductive number, which were combined using the Boolean operators (AND, OR). Based on the included studies, we estimated a summary reproductive number by using the meta-analysis. We used narrative synthesis to explain the results of the studies where the reproductive number was reported, however, were not possible to include in the meta-analysis because of the lack of data (mostly due to confidence interval was not reported).