Table 1.

Description of parameters of the general age-structured model.

symbol	parameter
M	number of age classes
μ	per capita birth and death rates
σ	incubation rate
γ	recovery rate
βi,j(t)	transmission rate between age class i and j. We assume βi,j(t) = βj,i(t) for all t, i and j
νi	ageing rate from age class i to i + 1, for $i=1,\dots ,M-1$. We also set ν0 = νM = 0
$\iota$	constant transmission rate from outside the population
p	fraction of newborns vaccinated
b	mean transmission rate among school-aged children, averaged over the entire year (refer to electronic supplementary material, S1)
s	amplitude of seasonality in the corrected term-time forcing function (refer to electronic supplementary material, S1)