Quarantine is the practice of keeping potentially infected people away from healthy people. It may last through the disease's communicable period or end earlier following a negative infection test.

Emory University

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Physical distancing is a COVID-19 control strategy that reduces opportunities for direct transmission by decreasing close contact and changing social-mixing patterns. Models can compare intervention intensities and estimate outcomes such as reducing outbreak magnitude or delaying the epidemic peak.

Physical Distancing as a COVID-19 Control Strategy

Physical distancing measures including but not limited to school and workplace closures and health promotions that encourage the general public to avoid crowded places, are designed to drastically shift social mixing patterns and are often used in epidemic settings. A distance of 6 feet is encouraged between people not living with each other in public spaces.

What is Physical Distancing?

Depending on the severity of physical distancing intervention, it could have an impact on delaying the epidemic peak. The various outcomes are evaluated using predictive models.

Potential Outcomes of Physical Distancing Interventions

The SEIR model simulates the outbreak over a 1 year period

The population is divided into four categories based on infection status:
Susceptible (S)
Exposed (E)
Infected (I)
Removed (R)

SEIR Model of COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan, China

There were three different levels of intervention used for the model to predict the outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China:

**First level:** no change to social mixing patterns

**Second level:** minor to moderate change in social mixing patters due to holiday and school breaks (no intervention)

**Third level:** intense intervention (changes to school and work)

Different Levels of Intervention for Modeling

The simulations showed that control measures aimed at reducing social mixing in the population can be effective in reducing the magnitude and delaying the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Key Point: Physical Distancing is Effective

Isolation refers to keeping infected persons away from healthy people. 

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