(Fig 2 and S2 and S4 Videos) suggests that the pandemic may be partially shaped by biogeographical patterns [22]. However, until the pandemic has lasted a full year, it will not be possible to draw reliable conclusions on the relationship between abiotic factors and COVID-19 [7].
Our predictive model does not account for variables relevant to local-scale factors that are associated with community infection or containment/suppression measures implemented against the epidemic in individual countries/regions. Consequently, the model has residuals (Fig 7), i.e., deviations in the observed number of COVID-19 cases that reflect the influence of local-scale drivers on disease spread. Pos