Factors associated with daily reported cases in the first epidemiological wave of covid-19 in european and Latin American countries

Abstract

The current Covid-19 pandemic was characterized by a massive global outbreak in the first three months of 2020. The lack of preparedness of countries for this type of virus and the characteristic exponential spread of daily cases of Covid-19 generated a health crisis unprecedented in the last century. This is reflected in European countries such as France, Italy and Spain, which had a similar first epidemiological wave in many aspects such as, for example, periods of exponential growth of more than 7 days a month after reporting the first case in January 2020. In February of the same year, the first cases of Covid-19 were reported in Latin American countries, which, as the days went by, surpassed the number of infections in the countries mentioned above, and also suffered larger epidemiological waves. In this sense, 10 factors are established that are related to the periods of exponential growth identified in Spain, France, Italy, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, of which the weaknesses of social distancing, migration and crowds in open public spaces.