Before revision: Most of the existing literature on the current pandemic focuses on approaches to model the outbreak and spreading of COVID-19. This paper proposes a generalized Markov-Switching approach, the SUIHR model, designed to study border control policies and contact tracing against COVID-19 in a period where countries start to re-open.
After revision: Imported COVID-19 cases, if unchecked, can jeopardize the effort of domestic containment. We aim to find out what sustainable border control options for different entities (e.g., countries, states) exist during the reopening phases, given their own choice of domestic control measures and new technologies such as contact tracing. We propose a SUIHR model, which represents an extension to the discrete time SIR models. The model focuses on studying the spreading of virus predominantly by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients. Imported risk and (1-tier) contact tracing are both built into the model. Under plausible parameter assumptions, we seek sustainable border control policies, in combination with sufficient internal measures, which allow entities to confine the virus without the SUIHR model, designed to study border control policies and contact tracing against COVID-19 in a period where countries start to re-open.