Population density,activity centres,and pandemic: Visualizing clusters of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong

Abstract

The impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on society and economy are wide-ranging, long-lasting, and global. The experience of multiple countries or regions in fighting the pandemic indicates that there could be multiple COVID-19 surges, where a growing number of cases can be observed in the more recent surge(s). Were COVID-19 cases and clusters of cases (across surges) randomly distributed in spaces? Did population density and activity centres influence clusters of cases and associated venues? Based on information on the associated venues of the four surges of COVID-19 cases between January 2020 and February 2021 as well as population density, visuals were made to distinguish the relationships between population density, activity centres, and clusters of cases in Hong Kong. Different spatial patterns were observed across the four surges: fewer cases were observed in the first surge with a more evenly distributed pattern of clusters; the second surge as compared to the first surge saw a wider distribution and an increase in the number/layer of clusters; compared to the second surge, the third surge suffered from many more cases but saw a decrease in the general number of clusters; and compared to the previous three surges, the fourth surge had the largest number of cases, yet even fewer clusters were observed, where several clusters are again concentrated in specific areas similar to the previous surge. Across the four surges, a few locales could see recurrent clusters of cases and a few communities were without cases.

Keywords

COVID-19 footprint population density activity centres Hong Kong

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