This work introduces the Queen's University Agent-Based Outbreak Outcome Model (QUABOOM), a new, data-driven, agent-based Monte Carlo simulation for modelling epidemics and informing public health policy in a wide range of population sizes. We demonstrate how the model can be used to quantitatively inform capacity restrictions for COVID-19 to reduce their impact on small businesses by showing that public health measures should target few locations where many individuals interact rather than many locations where few individuals interact. We introduce a new method for the calculation of the basic reproduction rate that can be applied to low statistics data such as small outbreaks. A novel parameter to quantify the number of interactions in the simulations is introduced which allows our agent-based model to be run using small population sizes and interpreted for larger populations, thereby improving computational efficiency.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.