DOH taps UP experts for COVID-19 data analysis, recommendations

The Department of Health (DOH) will start its partnership with experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) in analyzing data regarding COVID-19 cases in the country.

At a virtual forum on Thursday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the UP experts will give recommendation to the government in relation to the pandemic.

“Meron na kaming inaayos na partnership with the University of the Philippines para  makatulong din natin sila in analyzing our numbers and providing, of course, recommendations to DOH and the whole of government,” she said.

“Inaayos na lang po ‘yung aming data sharing agreement. And hopefully, we can start doing the numbers with them and they can also provide us with recommendations,” Vergeire added.

Institute of Mathematics Assistant Professor Guido David and Department of Political Science Assistant Professor Ranjit Singh Rye, together with OCTA Research, have been doing forecasts on the spread of COVID-19 while sharing their insights for policy making.

In early May, the team projected that a “premature relaxation” of enhanced community quarantine beyond May 15 may result in a spike in COVID-19 cases of up to 24,000. On Wednesday, June 10, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country was recorded at 23,732.

During the forum, David now projected that the total cases of COVID-19 in the country will reach P40,000 by June 30 based on the current trend of the transmission.

According to Rye, this report and their recommendations will be submitted to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases on Thursday.

“Right now, the numbers are a cause of concern but not a cause of panic… because the numbers are still manageable. Recoveries are improving. The mortalities also are going down. And the health capacity — because of ECQ — has also caught up,” he said. --KBK, GMA News