Economic Evaluation of Quarantine: A Case Study of COVID-19 Pandemic in Belgium

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has become a public health crisis sweeping the whole globe. It even has the potential to create devastating social, economic and political effects on the countries it touches. Accurate prediction of the disease spread and the economic effects of interventions can help policy makers to develop reasonable strategies to control the pandemic. In this study, we built a SEIR-based simulation model to predict the disease transmission in Belgium. Based on the prediction, we also developed an economic model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of quarantine strategy. The results show that quarantine is an appropriate and cost-effective intervention to prevent the prevalence of COVID-19.