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An international team of scientists recently studied how African countries are reporting and sharing data related to the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. They found that African countries use separate reporting systems that include social media posts, website updates, situation reports, press releases, and online dashboards. A detailed report of the results is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.
Background
For better pandemic management, accurate reporting and public access to COVID-19 data is essential. An optimal reporting system should include the actual number of COVID-19 cases, patient demographics, co-morbidities, epidemiological risk factors, testing practices, and healthcare capacity. However, significant variation in COVID-19 reporting systems has been observed between countries around the world. This could have serious implications for pandemic risk management and national / international decision-making and policy-making at the global level.
A lower than expected infection and death rate was observed in African countries at the start of the pandemic. However, the continent faced major outbreaks of more infectious variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the final phase of the pandemic. To control the trajectory of the pandemic, African public health authorities have modified and improved COVID-19 reporting systems at national and continental levels.
In the present study, scientists examined digital reports on COVID-19 cases, risk factors and healthcare capacity in 54 African countries to better understand the future response and preparedness for the pandemic.
National COVID-19 Data Reporting Systems in Africa African countries are shown with an identified type of national COVID-19 data reporting system. If a country has used more than one reporting system, the system with the best data quality is displayed.
Important Notes
Scientists identified digital reporting systems in 53 of the 54 African countries examined. Tanzania was the only country without a notification system.
Reporting systems in 68% of countries included routine status reports and online dashboards. Of these countries, 83% reported subnational data, 55% reported the total number of tests performed, and 53%, 39% and 14% included information on patient sex, age and comorbidities, respectively.
For COVID-19 reports, extra-budgetary funds were used by 50% of countries. In addition, around 69% of countries have used social media to present statistics related to COVID-19.
Country specific reporting systems
For a further comparison, the scientists separately analyzed the digital reporting systems of five particular countries.
Cameroon
Cameroon’s reporting system included routine situation reports containing regular updates on health care capacity (availability of hospital beds and oxygen concentrators), testing capacity, patient comorbidities and cases among health workers. However, the country’s COVID-19 reports were less accessible by the general population. In Central Africa, five other countries, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Sao Tome and Principe, also provided online situation reports and dashboards.
Egypt
The underreporting of COVID-19 cases initially occurred in Egypt. Subsequently, the government began providing the total number of cases, deaths and recoveries on an Arabic website. However, the reports did not include information on patient demographics and comorbidities. Only Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan provided online situation reports and dashboards among six other North African countries.
Kenya
The government of the country provided high quality reports including test details, health care capacity, patient demographics and comorbidities, geographic distribution of cases and total number of hospitalizations, admissions in intensive care and home isolation.
Senegal
The country’s government has provided real-time COVID-19 case data via situation reports and online dashboards. In general, the majority of West African countries had high quality reporting systems.
South Africa
The situation reports and online dashboard mainly included detailed hospital surveillance data and routine updates on COVID-19 statistics in that country. In addition, detailed information on hospitalizations, demographics and co-morbidities of COVID-19 patients has been included in the reporting system. Other South African countries with status reports and online dashboards included Botswana, Eswatini and Namibia.
Importance of the study
Overall, the study identifies significant variation in data reporting systems across African countries, with some providing rich and high quality reports and others inadequate, infrequent and underestimated reports.
Based on the observations, scientists suggest that COVID-19 reporting systems should include information on demographics, co-morbidities, testing, and healthcare capacity in addition to reporting cases, deaths and recoveries. These additional details could help healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers and the general public better understand the pandemic.
*Important Notice
medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports which are not peer reviewed and, therefore, should not be considered conclusive, guide clinical practice / health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
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