How does the RAG decide to switch codes? We asked Laurane De Mot, at Sciensano. “We have a network of hospitals, GPs and sentinel care homes. They send us an update of their data once a week.“
With these observations, Sciensano releases his weekly “respiradar”. “This is the table that summarizes the syndromic data, that is, patients who respond to a set of symptoms.”
Sciensano therefore examines respiratory symptoms in general, but also those of a particular virus. “We have tests which are carried out on samples, and give us information specific to influenza, Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)”.
Based on what we observe in this respiradar and the indicators by pathogen, by virus, Sciensano will decide whether or not to convene a meeting with experts and people who are in the field, to decide on a possible change of code .
“And when we decided to convene the meeting for code orange, on January 9, the situation on the ground was really complicated, we noted a sharp increase in flu figures.“, explains Ms. De Mol.
In the meeting, we find a pole of experts: epidemiologists, representatives of regional and federal health authorities.
The code change is made according to the Belgian situation, but also that of neighboring countries, which can have an impact on Belgium.
How long does it last?
The RAG decides on the color level and then the Risk Management Group (RMG) will make possible recommendations to implement. There is no predefined rule for setting the duration of a winter plan code.
“We are trying to avoid yo-yoing,” said Ms. De Mot. “We will not move to a code orange in the descending phase, otherwise the messages are not clear.”
So, as the peak approaches, it’s a good time to be really careful, and the code orange is likely to last for several weeks, until the downward phase is well confirmed. “The return to code yellow will most likely be done on the basis of a meeting” confirms Sciensano.
