ABSTRACT
Referring tothe study of epidemic mathematical models, this manuscript presents a noveldiscrete-time COVID-19 model that includes the number of vaccinated individuals as an additional state variable in the system equations. The paper shows that the proposed compartment model, described by difference equations, has two fixed points, i.e., a disease-free fixed point and an epidemic fixed point. By considering both the forward difference system and the backward difference system, some stability analyses of the disease-free fixed point are carried out.In particular, for the backward difference system a novel theorem is proved, which gives a condition for the disappearance of the pandemic when an inequality involving some epidemic parameters is satisfied. Finally, simulation results of the conceived discrete model are carried out, along with comparisons regarding the performances of both the forward difference system and the backward difference system.
