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Reporting discrepancies between officially confirmed COVID-19 death counts and unreported COVID-19–like illness (CLI) death counts have been evident across the world, including Bangladesh. Assessing the reporting of the death counts in the country, Dahdaleh Institute's inaugural Planetary Health Fellow Byomkesh Talukder co-authored a recently published article in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

In the research, the authors used publicly available data to explore the differences between confirmed COVID-19 death counts and deaths with possible COVID-19 symptoms between March 2, 2020 and August 22, 2020. It was evident that unreported CLI death counts totalled more than half of the confirmed COVID-19 death counts during the study period. However, in their investigation of the reporting authority Bangladesh, they discovered that they did not consider CLI deaths, which might produce incomplete and unreliable COVID-19 data and respective mortality rates. The authors argue that all deaths with possible COVID-19 symptoms need to be included in provisional death counts to better estimate the COVID-19 mortality rate and to develop data-driven COVID-19 response strategies. As a result, an urgent initiative is needed to prepare a comprehensive guideline for reporting COVID-19 deaths.

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