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Version 1
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Confirmed and Unreported COVID-19 Death Counts: An Assessment of Reporting Discrepancy
Version 1
: Received: 20 July 2020 / Approved: 22 July 2020 / Online: 22 July 2020 (11:32:05 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Journal reference: Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 2021, 104, 546-548
DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-1205
Abstract
Objective: We aim to assess the reporting discrepancy and the difference between confirmed and unreported COVID-19-like death counts.Study Design: The study is based on time-series data.Methods: We used publicly available data to explore the differences between confirmed death counts and deaths with Codiv-19 symptoms between March 8, 2020, and July 11, 2020, in Bangladesh.Results: During the week ending May 9, 2020, the unreported COVID-19-like death count was higher than the confirmed COVID-19 death count; however, it was lower in the following weeks. On average, unreported COVID-19-like death counts were similar to the confirmed COVID-19 death counts during the same period. However, the reporting authority neither considers these deaths nor adjusts for potential seasonal influenza or other related deaths, which might produce incomplete COVID-19 data and respective mortality rates. Conclusions: Documenting unreported deaths with COVID-19 symptoms needs to be included in provisional death counts because it is essential to estimate a robust COVID-19 mortality rate and to offer data-driven pandemic response strategies. An urgent initiative is needed to prepare an acceptable guideline for COVID-19 death reporting.
Keywords
COVID-19; Unreported COVID-19 Death; Provisional COVID-19 Death; Death Reporting Discrepancy; Bangladesh
Subject
SOCIAL SCIENCES, Other
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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