Modeling the Spread of COVID-19: Examining the influence of face mask policies in select U.S. states

Modeling the Spread of COVID-19: Examining the influence of face mask policies in select U.S. states

We examine the spread of COVID-19 in multiple states using a compartmental differential equations model. We compare the transmission rates between states before and after face mask mandates are implemented. We use data from The COVID Tracking Project to verify our model. Our findings indicated that the infection rate of COVID-19 decreased after face mask policies were introduced in the five states of interest. Now that vaccines are readily available, we add a new compartment to our model that takes the vaccination rates of different states into account and expand our study by looking at infection, recovery, death, and vaccination rates.