1887
  1. Home
  2. Eurosurveillance
  3. Volume 28, Issue 40, 05/Oct/2023
  4. Article
Euroroundup Open Access
Like 0
Download

Abstract

International comparisons of COVID-19 incidence rates have helped gain insights into the characteristics of the disease, benchmark disease impact, shape public health measures and inform potential travel restrictions and border control measures. However, these comparisons may be biased by differences in COVID-19 surveillance systems and approaches to reporting in each country. To better understand these differences and their impact on incidence comparisons, we collected data on surveillance systems from six European countries: Belgium, England, France, Italy, Romania and Sweden. Data collected included: target testing populations, access to testing, case definitions, data entry and management and statistical approaches to incidence calculation. Average testing, incidence and contextual data were also collected. Data represented the surveillance systems as they were in mid-May 2021. Overall, important differences between surveillance systems were detected. Results showed wide variations in testing rates, access to free testing and the types of tests recorded in national databases, which may substantially limit incidence comparability. By systematically including testing information when comparing incidence rates, these comparisons may be greatly improved. New indicators incorporating testing or existing indicators such as death or hospitalisation will be important to improving international comparisons.

© Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088
2023-10-05
2024-11-15
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/28/40/eurosurv-28-40-2.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Parczewski M, Ciechanowicz A. Molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2: a review of current data on genetic variability of the virus. Pol Arch Intern Med. 2020;131(1):63-9. PMID: 32785209 
  2. Eurosurveillance editorial team. Updated rapid risk assessment from ECDC on the outbreak of COVID-19: increased transmission globally. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(9):2003051.  PMID: 32156331 
  3. Alfano V, Ercolano S. The Efficacy of Lockdown Against COVID-19: A Cross-Country Panel Analysis. Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2020;18(4):509-17.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-020-00596-3  PMID: 32495067 
  4. Voigt A, Omholt S, Almaas E. Comparing the impact of vaccination strategies on the spread of COVID-19, including a novel household-targeted vaccination strategy. PLoS One. 2022;17(2):e0263155.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263155  PMID: 35108311 
  5. Our World in Data. Where our work on the Coronavirus pandemic is used in media and research. [Accessed: 15 Mar 2022]. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-media-coverage
  6. Mach KJ, Salas Reyes R, Pentz B, Taylor J, Costa CA, Cruz SG, et al. News media coverage of COVID-19 public health and policy information. Humanit Soc Sci Commun. 2021;8(1):220.  https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00900-z 
  7. Han E, Tan MMJ, Turk E, Sridhar D, Leung GM, Shibuya K, et al. Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe. Lancet. 2020;396(10261):1525-34.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32007-9  PMID: 32979936 
  8. Milcent B. Covid-19: pourquoi l'Allemagne fait mieux que la France. [COVID-19: why Germany is doing better than France]. Paris: RTL; 2020. French. Available from: https://www.rtl.fr/actu/international/covid-19-pourquoi-l-allemagne-fait-mieux-que-la-france-7800808358
  9. Pagel C, McKee M. Why is England doing worse against Covid than its European neighbours? London: The Guardian. [Accessed: 17 Mar 2022] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/07/england-vaccine-just-plus-europe-covid
  10. European Parliament. Assessment of COVID-19 surveillance case definitions and data reporting in the European Union. 2020. Available from: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/652725/IPOL_BRI(2020)652725_EN.pdf
  11. Wieler L, Gottschalk R. Emerging COVID-19 success story: Germany’s strong enabling environment. Oxford: Our World in Data. [Accessed: 20 Feb 2022]. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-germany-2020
  12. Kuppalli K, Gala P, Cherabuddi K, Kalantri SP, Mohanan M, Mukherjee B, et al. India’s COVID-19 crisis: a call for international action. Lancet. 2021;397(10290):2132-5.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01121-1  PMID: 34000256 
  13. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). COVID-19 surveillance guidance, Transition from COVID-19 emergency surveillance to routine surveillance of respiratory pathogens. Stockholm: ECDC; 2021. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/covid-19-surveillance-guidance
  14. Eurostat. Population and Demography Database, Database Population on 1 January by age and sex. Luxembourg: Eurostat. [Accessed: 25 Sep 2023] Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/population-demography/demography-population-stock-balance/database
  15. Ma Q, Liu J, Liu Q, Kang L, Liu R, Jing W, et al. Global Percentage of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections Among the Tested Population and Individuals With Confirmed COVID-19 Diagnosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(12):e2137257.  https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.37257  PMID: 34905008 
  16. Brümmer LE, Katzenschlager S, Gaeddert M, Erdmann C, Schmitz S, Bota M, et al. Accuracy of novel antigen rapid diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2: A living systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Med. 2021;18(8):e1003735.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003735  PMID: 34383750 
  17. Dinnes J, Deeks JJ, Adriano A, Berhane S, Davenport C, Dittrich S, et al. Rapid, point-of-care antigen and molecular-based tests for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;8(8):CD013705. Epub20200828. PMID: 32845525 
  18. Office for National Statistics (ONS). COVID-19 Infection Survey. Newport: ONS. [Accessed: 15 May 2022]. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/covid19infectionsurvey.
  19. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Response Measures Database (RMD). Stockholm: ECDC; 13 Oct 2022. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/response-measures-database-rmd
A comparison of COVID-19 incidence rates across six European countries in 2021
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Michael+Padget&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Padget Michael</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Pauline+Adam&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Adam Pauline</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Marina+Dorfmuller&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Dorfmuller Marina</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Clara+Blondel&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Blondel Clara</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Ines+Campos-Matos&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Campos-Matos Ines</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Myriam+Fayad&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Fayad Myriam</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Alberto+Mateo-Urdiales&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Mateo-Urdiales Alberto</a>, <a href="/search?value1=David+Mesher&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Mesher David</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Adriana+Pistol&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Pistol Adriana</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Javiera+Rebolledo&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Rebolledo Javiera</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Flavia+Riccardo&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Riccardo Flavia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Maximilian+Riess&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Riess Maximilian</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Lavinia+Cipriana+Rusu&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Rusu Lavinia Cipriana</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Didier+Che&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Che Didier</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Bruno+Coignard&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Coignard Bruno</a>, <a href="/search?value1=COVID-19+Study+group&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">COVID-19 Study group</a></span>. A comparison of COVID-19 incidence rates across six European countries in 2021. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2023;28(40):pii=2300088. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 02 Feb 2023;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 26 Jun 2023 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.40.2300088
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error