EXPERTS DEVELOP NEW TOOL TO HELP CONTAIN COVID-19 IN LATIN AMERICA Written by Amanda Torres Published on May 11, 2020 Category: Faculty, Alumna, Initiative
The tool, officially called the State-Level Observatory for the Containment of COVID-19, presents a daily portrait on the extent of social distancing measures adopted by state governments in Latin America, in accordance with international recommendations, the timeliness of their adoption, and the population’s response in terms of reduced mobility.
and leading researchers from Mexico, have created and shared a new tool that will help access this information.
COVID-19 at the state level in Latin America and is innovative for low- and middle-income countries.
Mexico, for example, has entered the most critical phase of COVID-19 Phase 3 involves maximum intensification of measures to decrease virus transmission and deaths. Now more than ever, it is critical to have accurate and timely information on the measures to contain the disease, as well as to know whether the population is complying with the measures.
“Resource-poor health systems in Latin America are going to be much harder hit by this pandemic than anything we have seen in Canada or the United States. It is crucial that policymakers at the state level have reliable data to monitor and inform their efforts to contain COVID-19,” said Dr. Knaul, who is also a professor at the Department of Public Health Sciences. “Experts from across the University of Miami and Mexico built this tool as a public good and largely working as volunteers, hoping that it can be used to save lives. I am especially grateful for the generous contributions of my colleagues from the Department of Public Health Sciences.”
The first contribution of the observatory is the calculation of an index based on the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) – a tool developed by the University of Oxford that consists of a list of measures available to governments to reduce the speed of transmission of the virus.
Felicia M. Knaul, Ph.D., director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the University of Miami, with experts from the Miller School of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences, UM's College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communication, organizations across the country
The new observatory – developed by Raymond Balise, Ph.D., professor at the Department of Public Health Sciences and Layla Bouzoubaa, M.S.P.H., a lead research analyst at the Miller School of Medicine – is the only database that provides information on the behavior of public policy towards
The University of Miami-led observatory is based on the OxCGRT framework and codifies the response of the state governments in Mexico, based on the information available on the official websites of each of the states. UM experts used the OxCGRT to identify seven preventive measures relevant to the situation in Mexico. They include: » » » » »
Closing schools Suspending on-site work activities Canceling public events Suspending public transportation Developing information campaigns
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