The president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, has announced the creation of a Permanent Observatory of Data Science on COVID-19 and the launch of several projects to evaluate the effects of vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2 in the Valencian Community.
The president has held meetings at the Palau de la Generalitat with members of the Data Sciences Working Group for COVID-19 in the Valencian Community and the Valencian COVID-19 Vaccine Research Program (ProVaVac), the latter with the participation from the Minister of Universal Health and Public Health, Ana Barceló. In addition, the general director of Analysis and Public Policies, Ana Berenguer, has also attended them.
"These two groups demonstrate the great vitality and strength of the Valencian Community innovation and research system," said Ximo Puig.
Regarding the Data Science Working Group, the president of the Generalitat has advanced the intention of promoting the creation of a Permanent Observatory of Data Science to collect information related to COVID-19 and the post-COVID scenario in the Valencian Community .
The current working group led by the commissioner of the Presidency of the Generalitat for the Valencian Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, Nuria Oliver, coordinates data intelligence in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Valencian Community.
This group is made up of experts from the Jaume I University, the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Miguel Hernández University, the University of Alicante, the CEU Cardenal Herrera University and the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research ( Fisabio), and focuses its work on three priority areas: analysis, visualization and modeling of mobility data, epidemiological models and data science applied to COVID-19.
Among the works carried out within it, the Valencia IA4COVID team, coordinated by Nuria Oliver, and the director of the Department of Applied Mathematics of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, José Alberto Conejero, recently won the first prize of the international challenge 'Response to the Pandemic ', for its Artificial Intelligence model to manage the fight against COVID-19.
On the other hand, in relation to the vaccine research program, Ximo Puig explained that two projects have already been launched. One of them is aimed at the evaluation and monitoring of post-vaccination symptoms through surveys in which data are collected 1, 3, 7 and 30 days after receiving the dose.
The other is a study that analyzes the degree of immunity generated by vaccination in social and sanitary residences, for which 13 centers have been randomly chosen in which 850 people reside in order to have a representative population sample.
The head of Microbiology at the Hospital Clínico de València and scientific director of the Valencian Vaccine Research Program, David Navarro, has detailed that the working group associated with this initiative has designed five projects, of which the most advanced are post-monitoring. vaccination, with the aim of analyzing, through surveys, possible adverse effects that are reported less frequently, as well as studies to evaluate vaccine efficacy in high-risk populations, such as elderly people in nursing homes and health personnel.
