The Quezon City government has developed an early warning system that detects a possible Covid-19 surge.
“As our doctors would say ‘prevention is better than cure’. At this point, there’s too much at stake to let all our efforts go to waste. We cannot afford to go back to zero,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
Designed by the Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (QCESU), the warning system entails the systematic monitoring of new cases, analysis of trend, and recommendation of strategic measures to prevent another life-threatening outbreak.
QCESU chief Dr. Rolly Cruz said the warning system uses three colors -- white, yellow, and red -- to classify the status of infections in the city.
It includes four indicators, namely the Growth Rate (GR) between the current week and the previous week; the seven-day average Daily Attack Rate (ADAR); the daily positivity rate with seven-day moving average; and the Reproduction Number.
The white status is raised when Covid-19 cases are below average and all data indicators are considered stable, no surge of cases is expected within 14 days.
The yellow status is raised when cases are seen increasing compared to the previous week and when three or four indicators have increased from normal to above normal which is a possibility of a surge within the next 14 days.
For red status, cases continue to rise and all other indicators remain high or have breached the indicated threshold, which indicates the start of a surge.