The Traffic Light Approach: Indicators and Algorithms to Identify Covid-19 Epidemic Risk Across Italian Regions.

Luca Paroni,Clelia D'Apice,Silvia Ussai,Benedetta Armocida,Lorenzo De Min,Eduardo Missoni,Beatrice Formenti

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.650243

Abstract

With the beginning of the autumn-winter season, Italy experienced an increase of SARS-CoV-2 cases, requiring the Government to adopt new restrictive measures. The national surveillance system in place defines 21 key process and performance indicators addressing for each Region/Autonomous Province: (i) the monitoring capacity, (ii) the degree of diagnostic capability, investigation and contact tracing, and (iii) the characteristics of the transmission dynamics as well as the resilience of health services. Overall, the traffic light approach shows a collective effort by the Italian Government to define strategies to both contain the spread of COVID-19 and to minimize the economic and social impact of the epidemic. Nonetheless, on what principles color-labeled risk levels are assigned on a regional level, it remains rather unclear or difficult to track.

Highlights

Luca Paroni 1,2, Clelia D’Apice 1,3, Silvia Ussai 4*, Benedetta Armocida 1, Beatrice Formenti 1,5, Lorenzo De Min 1 and Eduardo Missoni 1,6
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Public Health Policy, a section of the journal Frontiers in Public Health
The national surveillance system in place defines 21 key process and performance indicators addressing for each Region/Autonomous Province: (i) the monitoring capacity, (ii) the degree of diagnostic capability, investigation and contact tracing, and (iii) the characteristics of the transmission dynamics as well as the resilience of health services

Summary

Ability to promptly test all suspected cases

Ability to guarantee adequate resources for contact-tracing, isolation and quarantine. Number of cases notified per month with a history of hospital admission (in wards other than ICU) indicating the date of admission/Total cases with a history of hospital admission (in wards other than ICU) notified to the national surveillance system in the same period

Number of checklists provided weekly to residential healthcare facilities

Time between symptoms onset and diagnosis

Number of cases with decreasing or stable trend

Ministry of Health

Findings

ER Syndromic supervision coordination to be defined