Estimation of the Growth-Rate of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic at a subpopulation level

The rapid identification of potential SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks is key in the design of optimal intervention strategies and the control of its propagation. We propose a fast and accurate approach to estimate the growth rate of positive results of SARS-CoV-2 tests in a given subset of the population. This estimation has been used in the collected PCR tests in England, for different local authorities and age groups. We describe the mathematical structure of the model and how it also provides an estimation of the weekday effect in data collection.