Development of COVID-19 Surveillance System, Yasothon Province

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a COVID-19 surveillance system in Yasothon province. It was conducted during May to July 2020. The action research was used to develop the model. The research had three stages: (1) preparing and situation analysis, (2) operation to develop the model; and (3) testing the model. The research instruments were Google form, Google sheet and App sheet on Google drive. The statistics for data analysis were frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation and Z-test. The results show that there were a surveillance system and quarantine monitoring system of COVID-19. The surveillance system had both community and hospital-based components. Public health officers at sub-district, district and province levels had participated in the design of the system. The surveillance system had significantly increased the completeness and timeliness of the data (p<0.05). Population at risk obtained health education from community health volunteers and public health officers, and subsequently change their behaviors to prevent COVID-19. As a result, the completeness of 14-day quarantine among population at risk had significantly increased (p<0.05). The surveillance system indicated the comprehensiveness and continuity of the development cycle that used application to report and access the data which could be shared on the website and real-time processing. Public health officers could rapidly and easily access to information at any time anywhere with available internet, and thus, improved COVID-19 prevention. Moreover, users had expressed their appreciation and satisfaction on the system. Therefore, utilization of data from this system should be assured in order to improve the prevention and control of COVID-19.