Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, global director of ICAP, was quoted in a September 25 article in The Gothamist, which discusses growing concerns of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in New York City. Dr. El-Sadr explained what data public health officials closely monitor to identify infection trends:
“When it comes to identifying a second wave, experts are looking for sustained trends. A consistent increase over several days or seven days that then would really trigger the alarm that there is something going on,” she explained. Scientists avoid focusing only on one data point, which can have large oscillations. Two critical parameters that she regularly checks on the city’s website are the seven-day average of cases and the positivity rate.
