Tag: CDC

Covid-19 Is Speeding Up How Deaths Are Recorded

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-is-speeding-up-how-deaths-are-recorded-11611397800

Excerpt:

When governments realized death tolls were too low, they revamped the way they counted them

….

Weeks after the virus hit Italy last year, doctors, funeral homes and officials realized that government Covid-19 death tolls were too low and many victims weren’t getting included. Informal tallies quickly revealed that thousands of deaths most likely caused by the virus had been omitted. Limited testing left the number of infections unknown, and many people had died outside hospitals, which were the initial source of fatality figures.

Italy’s statistical agency, Istat, scrambled to assemble more reliable information, collecting data from towns and cities faster than ever before. In May, it revealed what people at the front lines had suspected: a 39% jump in nationwide deaths between Feb. 21 and March 31 compared with previous years.

“Normally, they [the data] would have arrived six months later,” said Istat President Gian Carlo Blangiardo in May. “We made an extraordinary effort.”

Author: Daniel Michaels

Publication Date: 23 January 2021

Publication Site: WSJ

Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Index of COVID-19 Surveillance and Ad-hoc Data Files

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/covid-19-mortality-data-files.htm

Description: List of publicly available mortality data sets for the U.S. from the CDC, related to excess mortality starting in 2020 as well as COVID-specific mortality. A few data sets are updated on weekdays, but others are updated weekly on Wednesdays (usually). A few ad hoc data sets from specific dates are at the end.

Publication Frequency: Weekly for most data sets

Publication Site: CDC

Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

Description: Tableau dashboards from the CDC showing weekly updated data, with the following dashboards:

Weekly Excess Deaths
 Excess deaths with and without COVID-19
 Excess deaths with and without weighting
 Number of Excess Deaths
 Percent Excess Deaths
 Weekly Number of Deaths by Age
 Weekly Number of Deaths by Race/Ethnicity
 Change in Number of Deaths by Race/Ethnicity
 Weekly Number of Deaths by Cause Group
 Weekly Number of Deaths by Cause Subgroup
 Change in the Number of Deaths by Cause
 Total number above average by cause
 Total number above average by jurisdiction/cause

Also, downloadable data.

Example from 24 January 2021:

Data last updated: 21 January 2021

Regularly updated on Wednesdays, usually

Publication Site: CDC