A Hybrid Deep Learning Framework Based on CNN-GRU-TabNet for the Predictive Modeling of COVID-19 Mortality
Received: 6 August 2025 | Revised: 19 August 2025 | Accepted: 26 August 2025 | Online: 6 October 2025
Corresponding author: Ahmed Fahim
Abstract
The global outbreak of COVID-19 has presented substantial challenges in healthcare systems, demanding intelligent and responsive monitoring solutions. The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies with Artificial Intelligence (AI) models has emerged as a promising approach to enable real-time surveillance and predictive healthcare. This study proposes an advanced hybrid deep learning model that combines Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and TabNet for predicting COVID-19-related deaths using structured tabular data from India. The dataset comprises 4692 instances across 8 epidemiological features. The preprocessing involved mean imputation and normalization to handle missing values and scale the data. The CNN component extracts short-term temporal patterns, the GRU layer captures sequential dependencies, and TabNet applies attention-based feature refinement and selection. The model was evaluated using Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Median Absolute Error (MedAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), and coefficient of determination (R²). The proposed CNN-GRU-TabNet model significantly outperformed traditional regression models, including Random Forest (RF), SVR, KNN, Gradient Boosting (GB), and Bayesian Ridge (BR), achieving an R² of 0.995 and the lowest error metrics. These results validate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid framework for accurate and interpretable COVID-19 death prediction.
Keywords:
COVID-19 mortality prediction, hybrid deep learning, IoT healthcare analytics, smart healthcare systems, CNN-GRU-tabNetDownloads
References
M. Chen, Q. Qian, X. Pan, and T. Li, "An investigation into the impact of temporality on COVID-19 infection and mortality predictions: new perspective based on Shapley Values," BMC Medical Research Methodology, vol. 25, no. 1, Apr. 2025, Art. no. 111.
O. Daramola et al., "Predictive modelling and identification of critical variables of mortality risk in COVID-19 patients," Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2025, Art. no. 2184.
Z. Xiang, J. Hu, S. Bu, J. Ding, X. Chen, and Z. Li, "Machine learning based prediction models for the prognosis of COVID-19 patients with DKA," Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2025, Art. no. 2633.
A. Shyamala, S. Murugeswari, G. Mahendran, and R. Jothi Chitra, "Hybrid grey assisted whale optimization based machine learning for the COVID-19 prediction," Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 388–397, Feb. 2025.
V. Yakovyna, N. Shakhovska, and A. Szpakowska, "A novel hybrid supervised and unsupervised hierarchical ensemble for COVID-19 cases and mortality prediction," Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, Apr. 2024, Art. no. 9782.
N. C. Paladugu, A. Bhavana, M. V. P. C. S. Rao, and A. Peddi, "Predicting Mortality in COVID-19 Patients Based on Symptom Data Using Hybrid Neural Networks," in Soft Computing and Signal Processing, vol. 840, H. Zen, N. M. Dasari, Y. M. Latha, and S. S. Rao, Eds. Springer Nature Singapore, 2024, pp. 361–373.
T. Y. Chang, C. K. Huang, C. H. Weng, and J. Y. Chen, "Feature-based deep neural network approach for predicting mortality risk in patients with COVID-19," Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 124, Sep. 2023, Art. no. 106644.
A. Yadav, V. Kumar, D. Joshi, D. S. Rajput, H. Mishra, and B. S. Paruti, "Hybrid Artificial Intelligence-Based Models for Prediction of Death Rate in India Due to COVID-19 Transmission:," International Journal of Reliable and Quality E-Healthcare, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1–15, Mar. 2023.
W. Zhao, Y. Sun, Y. Li, and W. Guan, "Prediction of COVID-19 Data Using Hybrid Modeling Approaches," Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 10, Jul. 2022, Art. no. 923978.
S. A. F. Sayed, A. M. Elkorany, and S. S. Mohammad, "Applying Different Machine Learning Techniques for Prediction of COVID-19 Severity," IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 135697–135707, 2021.
S. Dhamodharavadhani, R. Rathipriya, and J. M. Chatterjee, "COVID-19 Mortality Rate Prediction for India Using Statistical Neural Network Models," Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 8, Aug. 2020, Art. no. 441.
N. Sriwiboon and S. Phimphisan, "Efficient COVID-19 Detection using Optimized MobileNetV3-Small with SRGAN for Web Application," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 20953–20958, Apr. 2025.
S. Bolourani et al., "A Machine Learning Prediction Model of Respiratory Failure Within 48 Hours of Patient Admission for COVID-19: Model Development and Validation," Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 23, no. 2, Feb. 2021, Art. no. e24246.
Z. Chen et al., "A risk score based on baseline risk factors for predicting mortality in COVID-19 patients," Current Medical Research and Opinion, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 917–927, Jun. 2021.
"COVID-19 Corona Virus India Dataset." Kaggle, [Online]. Available: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/imdevskp/covid19-corona-virus-india-dataset.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ahmed Fahim, Ahmed M. Osman, Zahraa Tarek, Ahmed M. Elshewey

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.