Revealing the toll of COVID-19

Overview

The number of COVID-19 related deaths has become a key indicator to track the impact of the pandemic in countries and across the world. However, this number is not easily collected and reported by every country. To support national governments with surveillance and response planning, WHO has partnered with Vital Strategies and other global partners to launch a new technical package: Revealing the Toll of COVID-19: A Technical Package for Rapid Mortality Surveillance and Epidemic Response.

Compared with only using COVID-19 confirmed deaths as a measure of impact, rapid mortality surveillance generates daily or weekly counts of mortality data by age, sex, date of death, place of death and place of usual residence. This provides a more complete picture of impact, particularly for deaths that may be indirectly related to COVID-19. This also addresses the indirect impact caused by disruptions in healthcare access and supply chains. When policy-makers can compare estimated weekly number of excess deaths related to COVID-19 compared with pre-pandemic levels, they have a powerful tool to inform their national response and recovery planning.