Detecting Regions At Risk for Spreading COVID-19 Using Existing Cellular Wireless Network Functionalities

Goal:The purpose of this article is to introduce a new strategy to identify areas with high human density and mobility, which are at risk for spreading COVID-19. Crowded regions with actively moving people (calledat-riskregions) are susceptible to spreading the disease, especially if they contain asymptomatic infected people together with healthy people.Methods:Our scheme identifiesat-riskregions using existing cellular network functionalities—handoverandcell (re)selection—used to maintain seamless coverage for mobile end-user equipment (UE). The frequency ofhandoverandcell (re)selectionevents is highly reflective of the density of mobile people in the area because virtually everyone carries UEs.Results:These measurements, which are accumulated over very many UEs, allow us to identify theat-riskregions without compromising the privacy and anonymity of individuals.Conclusions:The inferredat-riskregions can then be subjected to further monitoring and risk mitigation.