COVID-19 Air Traffic Visualization: Air Passenger Transmission Risk to GCC Countries Originated from Outside the Region

Grissom, Adam R.; Mouton, Christopher A.; Hanson, Russell Godges John P.; Corporation, Rand

The COVID-19 Air Traffic Visualization (CAT-V) tool combines COVID-19 case data from Johns Hopkins University and International Air Transport Association air travel data to examine COVID-19 virus transmission as a result of commercial air travel. In this report the authors use the CAT-V tool to examine COVID-19 transmission risk from air travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It is determined that on January 28, 2020 the majority of COVID-19 transmission risk from air travel came from passengers from China;by February 29, 2020, the greatest source of potentially infected air travelers to the UAE was South Korea, followed by Italy and China.