April 1, 2021

COVID-19 Case Surveillance: Trends in Person-Level Case Data Completeness, United States, April 5-September 30, 2020

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): public health, surveillance

• National COVID-19 case surveillance data received by the CDC from April to September 2020 represented only 73% (~5 of 6.9 million) of the absolute number of cases and 72% of the absolute number of deaths (~142,000 of 198,000), as of November 2020. Completeness of case surveillance records was highest for age and sex (>98%), but race/ethnicity data were complete for only 57% of cases, with variation by region. Data for each underlying medical condition assessed was less than 25% complete and declined during the study period. Only about half of records had complete hospitalization and death status.

Gold et al. (Mar 31, 2021). COVID-19 Case Surveillance: Trends in Person-Level Case Data Completeness, United States, April 5-September 30, 2020. Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974).  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33789540/