At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with case counts rising faster than testing capacity, the Belgian government used a triage procedure to decide which patients should get a PCR test:
- A patient’s self-reported symptoms (anamnesis) capture whether they have sneezing and/or coughing.
- Temperature is measured. The default fever threshold is 38°C, except for patients younger than 10, where it’s 37.2°C (due to differences in measurement method and accuracy for young children).
- If a patient presents at least two of these symptoms, they proceed to PCR testing; otherwise, standard quarantine guidance applies.
Model this triage logic — as decision tables or otherwise — keeping in mind that the pandemic was an ongoing crisis with expertise evolving in real time. In particular, make sure your model could gracefully absorb: (1) additional symptoms becoming recognized, such as loss of smell or taste, and (2) a change to the number-of-symptoms threshold that triggers testing.
This challenge was proposed by Matthias van der Hallen (KU Leuven — DTAI).
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