Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (FASSSTER) for LGU Epidemiology Surveillance Units: Enhancements for Monitoring and Predicting the Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019

To become a suitable tool for COVID-19 surveillance, the Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research (ACCCRe) of Ateneo de Manila University led by Dr. Regina Estuar (ACCCRe Director), with the assistance of the DOH - Epidemiology Bureau (DOHEB) and the UP Manila - National Telehealth Center (UPNTHC), recalibrated the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler or FASSSTER to forecast the effect of health systems capacity and specific interventions, such as community quarantine measures, optimal testing, and compliance to minimum health standards, on the future number of COVID-19 cases in specific areas over time. With the recalibration, FASSSTER became one of the decision-making tools that is being used by the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and National Task Force on COVID-19 to determine Local Government Unit (LGU) risk classification and to formulate appropriate strategies for COVID-19 response, including the implementation of community quarantine measures. The platform was officially adopted by the Department of Health (DOH) as the COVID-19 operational disease surveillance and modelling tool in the country on 4 September 2020. Part of the FASSSTER enhancements is the addition of a complementary passive contact tracing application called TanodCOVID. It is a companion application of FASSSTER that enables constituents to report their COVID-19-related symptoms to their local health authorities using free SMS. The self-reports will feed into the DOH's KontraCOVID web application, where they will be accessed and validated by Provincial, City, or Municipal Epidemiology and Surveillance Units. Through the integration of self-reports from TanodCOVID and KIRA chatbot, KontraCOVID enables updating of constituents' health status and transmits information to FASSSTER for identification and visualization of hotspots that may be considered in targeted testing and localized lockdown efforts. The cloud server hosting for FASSSTER and TanodCOVID applications was supported by the Department of Science and Technology - Advance Science and Technology Institute's (DOST-ASTI) Computing and Archiving Research Environment (COARE) Program. The national IATF-EID endorsed the adoption of FASSSTER web application and the TanodCOVID system to the 17 Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF)/ Regional Task Force (RTF) and LGUs. The project team from ACCCRe, with the assistance of DOH and DOST Regional Offices, local volunteer trainers, and data interpreters conducted training sessions for RIATF/RTF and LGUs. To date, there are 1, 898 registered users in FASSSTER from the national IATF-EID, RIATF/RTF, 84 provincial LGUs, and 489 city/municipal LGUs. On the other hand, 56 city/municipal LGUs and 2 provincial LGUs are registered in TanodCOVID.