Medical certification of cause of death during COVID-19 pandemic – a challenging scenario

Juyal, Deepak; Kumar, Adarsh; Pal, Shekhar; Thaledi, Shweta; Jauhari, Shalabh; Thawani, Vijay

Death certificate data is used to monitor local, regional and national mortality trend and is helpful in improving public health as well as public safety. Accurate and reliable information about the cause of death in a population is useful for understanding disease burden estimation and trends in the health of populations; moreover, the information provided by such data is vital in terms of public health planning as well. With the continuous upsurge in mortality due to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), mortality analysis could be valuable in addressing the current pandemic and implementing the epidemic control strategies effectively and efficiently. Given that COVID-19 death certification substantially affects the local and national responses towards disease prevention and transmission, the importance of the accuracy and quality of information in these certificates cannot be understated. Hence, accurate death certification related to COVID-19 is vital to understand the extent and progression of the current pandemic.