Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a pandemic within a matter of months. Analysing the first year of the pandemic, data and surveillance gaps have subsequently surfaced. Yet, policy decisions and public trust in their country’s strategies in combating COVID-19 rely on case numbers, death numbers and other unfamiliar metrics. There are many limitations on COVID-19 case counts internationally, which make cross-country comparisons of raw data and policy responses difficult. Purpose and conclusions: This paper presents and describes steps in the testing and reporting process, with examples from a number of countries of barriers encountered in each step, all of which create an undercount of COVID-19 cases. This work raises factors to consider in COVID-19 data and provides recommendations to inform the current situation with COVID-19 as well as issues to be aware of in future pandemics.
CITATION STYLE
Alvarez, E., Bielska, I. A., Hopkins, S., Belal, A. A., Goldstein, D. M., Slick, J., … Bouzanis, K. (2023, December 1). Limitations of COVID-19 testing and case data for evidence-informed health policy and practice. Health Research Policy and Systems. BioMed Central Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-00963-1
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