Analysis of mobility network metrics in the spread of COVID-19 in the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba and Litoral Norte (RMVPLN)

Abstract

In 2019, a pandemic of the so-called new coronavirus (SARS-COV-II) began, which causes the disease COVID-19. In a short time after the first case appeared, hundreds of countries began to register new cases every day. Mapping and analyzing the flow of people, regardless of the mode of transport, can help us to understand and prevent several phenomena that can affect our society in different ways. Graphs are complex networks made up of points and edges. The (geo)graphs are graphs with known spatial location and, in the case of our study, the edges represent the flow between them. The (geo)graphs proved to be a promising tool for such analyses. In the study region, municipalities that first registered their COVID-19 cases are also municipalities that have the highest mobility indices analyzed: degree, betweenness and weight of edges.