Óbitos por COVID-19 no Brasil: quantos e quais estamos identificando?

Covid-19 was initially notified in February, 2020, in Brazil, and the first death was reported on March 17 1 .Since then, national spread has been rapid, with over 9,000 deaths reported less than two months later 2 .These deaths refer to people who tested positive for the polymerase chain reaction test (PCR), which detects the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 and establishes the presence of the virus.This figure, however, represents only the tip of the iceberg, because the PCR test has been performed with priority on hospitalized patients under suspicion of having the disease and, in some states, as a post-mortem exam 3 .It can be deduced that there are certainly many deaths from suspected cases without a confirmed diagnosis.Thus, two major challenges are how to estimate the degree of underreported deaths due to Covid-19 and what the actual number is. DEATH CERTIFICATE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND COVID-19Cause of death information is gathered from the death certificate (DC), a standard international document that should be filled out by doctors in Brazil.In a DC, the cause(s)

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   A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin · 2020

6 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

• SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence in Brazil: results from two successive nationwide serological household surveys · 2020

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