Confirmed and Unreported COVID-19-Like Illness Death Counts: An Assessment of Reporting Discrepancy

Objective: To assess the reporting discrepancy between officially confirmed COVID-19 death counts and unreported COVID-19-like illness (CLI) death counts. Study Design: The study is based on secondary time-series data. Methods: We used publicly available data to explore the differences between confirmed COVID-19 death counts and deaths with probable COVID-19 symptoms in Bangladesh between March 8, 2020, and July 18, 2020. Both tabular analysis and statistical tests were performed. Results: During the week ending May 9, 2020, the unreported CLI death count was higher than the confirmed COVID-19 death count; however, it was lower in the following weeks. On average, unreported CLI death counts were almost equal to the confirmed COVID-19 death counts during the study period. However, the reporting authority neither considers CLI deaths nor adjusts for potential seasonal influenza-like illness or other related deaths, which might produce incomplete and unreliable COVID-19 data and respective mortality rates. Conclusions: Deaths with probable COVID-19 symptoms needs to be included in provisional death counts in order to estimate an accurate COVID-19 mortality rate and to offer data-driven pandemic response strategies. An urgent initiative is needed to prepare a comprehensive guideline for reporting COVID-19 deaths.

Confirmed and Unreported COVID-19 Death Counts: An Assessment of Reporting Discrepancy

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.

clinical governance: two years experience of reporting discrepancy review in radiology

this article describes a system for reviewing reporting discrepancies encountered in our department. this system has been in operation for two years and its aim was to learn from errors being encountered. it was introduced as part of our department's approach to clinical governance.