ECDC launched the new European Respiratory Diseases Forecasting Hub (RespiCast).
RespiCast is a collaboration between the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the ISI Foundation, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and combines multiple forecasting hubs for several respiratory disease indicators, including influenza-like-illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI), and indicators related to COVID-19.
Teams worldwide are invited to submit weekly forecasts for several disease indicators and countries. The forecasting models, covering ILI, ARI, and COVID-19, leverage a diverse range of infectious disease modeling approaches and data.
Models individual predictions are combined to create ensemble forecasts, an established way to achieve improved forecasting performance for infectious disease dynamic.
The forecasts published on RespiCast aims to offer decision-makers and the public reliable information on the short-term epidemiological evolution of respiratory illnesses in Europe.