(Newsletter: CRVS Insight July 2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the need for reliable and timely mortality statistics into sharp focus. Knowing how many people are dying and where they are is essential to tracking the virus’ spread and determining its impact. And while this sounds simple, COVID-19 also exposed deep and pervasive gaps in death registration systems in Asia and the Pacific, especially in low-income countries.

The upcoming seventh session of the Asia-Pacific Stats Café will look at how deaths, including causes of death, are being monitored and reported during the pandemic, and whether it involved changes to the health information system. The session will also discuss how the information about deaths and causes of death is being shared with the civil registration authorities and used for the production of vital statistics. Speakers from WHO, Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Public Health in Sri Lanka will present at the event.

Register for the Stats Café HERE  

A new blog authored by staff members at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and ESCAP also sheds light on how uncounted deaths can obscure COVID-19's gendered impact.