COVID-19

Introduction

The COVID-19 snapshot module investigates the governance and use of data for pandemic response, as well as the impacts of COVID-19 on wider data policies and practices.

Drawing on both primary indicators and secondary data sources, the module assesses COVID-19–related datasets focused around:

• Vaccination (primary indicator);
• Real-time healthcare system capacity (primary indicator);
• Testing (secondary sources);
• Infection and mortality (secondary sources).

The module will also draw on data collected across other modules to identify:

• Regulations that have changed in light of COVID-19;
• Impacts of COVID-19 on the availability and use of certain datasets.

This snapshot module coordinates with the health module and includes cross-cutting components that appear as sub-question elements in many other modules.

Prospective Indicators

• Availability: Vaccination (COVID-19)

• Availability: Real-time healthcare system capacity

COVID-19 Data and the Public Good

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected individuals and communities worldwide. Successfully managing and ending the pandemic is critical for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3); relatedly, SDG target 3.3 calls for combating communicable diseases with specific attention to epidemics. To fight the virus, many governments have turned to data as a key tool, adopting exceptional measures to access and process datasets and establishing new patterns for publishing and communicating data, often including daily or weekly updates.

Data on infection rates and mortality has been widely used, and scientific data sharing has been critical to efforts to tackle the spread of the virus. Public data on healthcare capacities, including ICU beds, healthcare professionals, testing, and personal protective equipment, has led to the scrutiny of public health systems, procurement processes, and global supply chains.

Accurate and timely data about vaccine distribution and rates of vaccination are and will continue to be a critical global tool for containing and eliminating the pandemic, particularly as the development and manufacture of vaccines is limited to comparatively few countries. Consequently, the global vaccine rollout is and will continue to be uneven. At the same time, the virus itself continues to change, producing new variants, and there is still much that is not known about the duration and efficacy of the existing vaccines. As with testing and treatment, disparities are likely to track against the social determinants of health (e.g. location and demographic variables).

Healthcare system capacity data supports governments and other actors in distributing resources. This is particularly critical during a public health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. As the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP 2021) notes, "Health care systems and workers...are under extreme pressure in many countries in terms of capacity and capabilities, financial resources, and access to vital commodities and supplies including medical oxygen" (8). Real-time or very recent data about a healthcare system's capacity not only helps public health departments respond to changes in the pandemic, it also helps ensure the continuity of essential health services and provides a foundation from which to build readiness for other health emergencies.