Estimating mortality and lethality rate from COVID-19 in Colombia

Estimación de las tasas de mortalidad y letalidad por COVID-19 en Colombia

Introduction: the world is in an unprecedented scenario for the 2020 season of respiratory viruses. For the first time in modern history, the world is facing the possibility of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and a simultaneous epidemic of seasonal influenza.  Objective: to present a method for calculating the mortality and lethality rates attributed to COVID-19 infection in the different departments of Colombia. Methodology: The database including people who have died from COVID-19 infection was used for the research, with the information accumulated up to August 10 2020. Results: the age group with the highest mortality rate is the 90-99 years group with 338 deaths per 100.000 inhabitants, followed by the 80-89 years group, with 335 deaths per 100.000 inhabitants. The groups with the lowest mortality rate are the 0-9 and 10-19 age groups, with less than 1 death per 100.000 inhabitants. Nationally, the rate per 100.000 inhabitants was 26 deaths. Conclusions: there is a need of tracking excess mortality data and performing an active exploration of patented cases with confirmed or presumptive diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, to check which deaths were caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus itself, a concomitant infection, or by other causes.

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