ABSTRACT
The traceability of COVID-19 is of great importance for Epidemiological implications. Two robust and non-parametric traceability methods were employed in the study to evaluate COVID-19's traceability for the prevention of epidemics. We first corrected the initial dates for eight countries using Solow and smith's method, and then the OLE method was applied to the corrected dataset for traceability. Our model suggests that the first global case of COVID19 originated on 25 September 2019 (95%CI 23 September) and that the first case emerged in Europe and spread rapidly to neighbouring countries, expanding globally in early January 2021. Our study suggests that the spread of the epidemic may be more rapid and earlier than we thought. The two methods we use can be used in a robust traceability approach for small sample estimates, providing additional explanations for epidemic traceability studies.