Suppose that you want to find out the trend for the given data in order to forecast the number of cases for the first 4 weeks of 2021. Determine the linear trend equation and forecast the number of cases for January 2021.

The following data shows the actual number of COVID-19 cases in the city for the past 14 weeks. Period Cases FSMA /A-F/ FWMA /A-F/ FES, a=0.3 /A-F/ 1 2 18 1 8 6.1 4 12 6.67 6 9.75 3.75 10.9 4.9 8.27 2.27 6 5 11 6 9.4 4.4 7.59 2.59 2 7.75 5.75 7 5.0 6.81 4.81 8 3 6.25 3.25 4.7 1.7 5.37 2.37 9 3 4 1 3.4 0.4 4.66 1.66 10 22 3.25 18.75 3 19.0 4.16 17.84 11 26 7.5 18.5 10.5 15.5 9.51 16.49 12 51 13.5 37.5 17.9 33.1 14.46 36.54 13 149 25.5 123.5 32.9 116.1 25.42 123.58 14 34 62 28 82.3 48.3 62.50 28.50 15 65 71.1 53.95 MAD 24.6 24.84 23.67