Containment strategies can limit the damage caused by a virus outbreak. But, their implementation also constrains residents’ income, freedom, and social interactions. Designing the timing and measures of containment requires careful considerations tailored to each region. In critical times of an outbreak, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, regional governments often lack forecasting tools that can inform them on designing efficient containment strategies.
SParCS an openly-available web-based portal—the Simulator for Pandemic Containment Strategies (SPaCS)—that can forecast the spread of an infectious agent and the effects of containment measures under different scenarios.