Understanding the pattern of COVID-19 is
important for purposes of formulating and implementing appropriate
precautionary measures to mitigate the spread of the epidemic. In this study,
the ANN approach was applied to analyze daily COVID-19 cases in Sierra Leone.
This study is based on monthly new cases of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone for the
period 1 January 2020 – 25 March 2021. The out-of-sample forecast covers the
period 26 March 2021 – 31 July 2021. The residuals and forecast evaluation
criteria (Error, MSE and MAE) of the model used in this study indicate that the
model is stable in forecasting daily COVID-19 cases in the country. It is
projected that daily COVID-19 cases in Sierra Leone are likely to slightly
increase and hover around a daily equilibrium of 26 cases over the bulk of the
out-of-sample period. The government of Sierra Leone should continue to enforce
adherence to the WHO sanitary rules and guidelines in order to suppress any
further increase in the number of cases. In this regard, we also encourage the
government to upscale the vaccination programme in the country.
Country : Zimbabwe
1 Dr. Smartson. P. NYONI2 Mr. Thabani NYONI3 Mr. Tatenda. A. CHIHOHO
ZICHIRe Project, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
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et al. (2020). Clinical Features of Patients Infected With 2019 Novel
Coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Lancet, 395: 497 – 506.
