Table 1.

Definitions of all variables and abbreviations

Variable	Definition	Unit of measurement
$R_t$	Real-time production number
EG	The exponential growth method
MLE	The maximum likelihood estimation
SB	The sequential Bayesian method
TD	The time-dependent reproduction numbers
Epi	EpiEstim R package method
$I_t$	Cumulative confirmed cases	People/day
$N_t$	The number of existing infected cases on day $t$	People/day
$R{E}_t$	The number of recovered cases on day $t$	People/day
$D_t$	The number of dead cases on day $t$	People/day
$S_t$	The number of susceptible to the infection on day $t$	People/day
$\gamma$	The intrinsic growth rate of the exponential growth
${\gamma }^{-1}$	The average duration of the infectious period	Day
$w$	The serial interval
$\alpha$	The shape parameter of SI distribution
$\beta$	The scale parameter of SI distribution
$P\left\{\lambda \right\}$	A discrete probability distribution with mean $\lambda$
$p_{\mathit{ij}}$	The likelihood that case $i$ was infected by case $j$
$w\left(\tau \right)$	The probability density function for the generation interval $\tau$
$T$	The duration of the infectious period	Day