MAST: A Quickest Detection Procedure for COVID-19 Epidemiological Data to Trigger Strategic Decisions

Signal processing tools play an important role in interpreting COVID-19 pandemic data, and thence contribute to timely and rational decisions. We recently proposed a sequential test (MAST) designed to detect the passage from a controlled to a critical regime of the COVID-19 pandemic; and similarly from critical to controlled. In this paper we provide a performance assessment and analysis of MAST alerts from official COVID-19 infection data-the number of daily new positives and hospitalized individuals in several Italian regions.