The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has formally launched the online tool Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-temporal Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Diseases. (FASSSTER) to the public.
FASSSTER aims to help the government in making decisions on the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in the Philippines.
It was created in 2016 and was funded by the DOST Philippine Council for Health Research and Development. It is designed to create disease models like Dengue, Typhoid fever, and Measles, and now being used to give the government an estimate on the possible number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines.
The data analysis uses the Enhanced Community Quarantine where it measures the movement of people in an area related to the spread of the virus, the Health system capacity and testing capacity of the country.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) uses the data from FASSSTER in decision-making.
FASSSTER has shown that if the ECQ was not implemented in March, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases would have reached 2 million in Metro Manila. With its implementation, the figures dropped to 500,000.
It has also projected that if the health capacity of the Philippines is raised by 40 percent, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases would drop to 12, 000.
Project head of FASSSTER Prof. Reena Estuar has clarified that the projected numbers of the online tool are dependent on the scenarios.
FASSSTER also features a Geo Facial Map which shows the status of COVID-19 in each location that can help the Local Government Units (LGUs) in implementing proper measures against the virus.
The website can also be accessed by the public by registering in https://fassster.ehealth.ph/covid19/ – Report from Bea Bernardo
