Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), is an infectious disease for which the spread of disease was categorized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The outbreak was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since then spread globally. Estimating the burden of the disease at national level is useful for comparing its impact with other diseases in the population and across populations. Burden of disease studies quantify the health impact of diseases and risk factors in comparable metrics. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is one of the most used summary measure of population health, and the key metric in the Global Burden of Disease study.

The burden-eu Core Group has prepared a protocol to provide guidance for anyone planning to assess the burden of disease of COVID-19 at national level using DALYs. It focuses on the direct health impact of the disease, and describes the data requirements, the methods, and considerations for communicating results. It also aims to foster harmonization of methodologies for estimating the burden of disease of COVID-19 across countries.

You can download the protocol here.

The burden-eu COVID-19 resource page is available via https://www.burden-eu.net/outputs/covid-19.