Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance: Surveillance and case definitions

 

To view all of WHO’s country and technical guidance on COVID-19 please visit our publications hub

Access the publications hub →

 

Surveillance strategies for COVID-19 human infection

This document provides an overview of surveillance strategies that Member States should consider as part of comprehensive national surveillance for COVID-19.  This document emphasises the need to adapt and reinforce existing national systems where appropriate and to scale-up surveillance capacities as needed.

- Access the document (Uploaded 10 May 2020) 

Contact tracing in the context of COVID-19

When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of an infectious disease and is thus an essential public health tool for controlling infectious disease outbreaks. This document provides guidance on how to establish contact tracing capacity for the control of COVID-19

- Access the document (uploaded 10 May 2020)

Considerations in the investigation of cases and clusters of COVID-19

This document offers operational guidance to Member States for the rapid investigation of suspected COVID-19 cases after an alert or signal. It is a tool to be used by local, regional, or national health authorities that addresses considerations in investigating cases of COVID-19. 

- Access the publication (2 April 2020)

Global Surveillance for human infection with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) 

This document provides guidance to Member States on implementation of global surveillance of COVID-19. The objectives of this global surveillance are:

  1. to monitor trends of the disease where human to human transmission occurs;
  2. rapidly detect new cases in countries where the virus is not circulating;
  3. provide epidemiological information to conduct risk assessments at the national, regional and global level; and
  4. provide epidemiological information to guide preparedness and response measures.

- Access the publication : “Global surveillance for COVID-19 caused by human infection with COVID-19 virus Interim guidance 20 March 2020” (20 March 2020)


Case-based reporting : reporting every case of COVID19

  1. Case-based reporting form
  2. Data dictionary for case-based reporting form

 

Aggregated reporting: reporting global cases count of COVID19

  1. Aggregated weekly reporting form

Considerations for quarantine of individuals in the context of containment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

The purpose of this document is to offer guidance to Member States on quarantine measures for individuals in the context of COVID-19. It is intended for those responsible for establishing local or national policy for quarantine of individuals, and adherence to infection prevention and control measures. 

- Access the publication (19 March 2020)

Operational considerations for COVID-19 surveillance using GISRS

This document is intended for Ministry of Health and other government officials responsible for COVID-19 and influenza surveillance and summarizes the operational considerations for leveraging influenza surveillance systems to incorporate COVID‑19 testing. 

- Access publication (26 March 2020)