Impact of awareness in self–monitoring of COVID-19: An optimal control approach

Abstract

COVID-19 has been a significant global health concern since the last quarter of 2019, prompting ongoing research to understand the transmission patterns and develop global intervention methods. This article presents a Scompartmental model that demonstrates the effectiveness of self-monitoring among individuals as a non-pharmaceutical method in reducing infection progression. The existence of equilibria and their stability have been studied on the basic of the basic reproduction number ($R_0$). We observed forward bifurcation at $R_0=1$. We have applied optimal control theory and formulated a three control parameters optimal control problem (OCP) to study non-therapeutic measures like increasing awareness of COVID-19 among susceptible and symptomatic individuals and therapeutic measures like providing improved treatment to hospitalized individuals. The cost-effectiveness of these strategies is also analyzed, suggesting the coexistence of possible treatment routes in controlling the virus.