TB DIAH recently launched its new COVID-19 data dashboard to show the potential impact of COVID-19 on TB notifications. The dashboard displays COVID-19 incidence and provisional TB notifications data from the WHO, and data about COVID stringency measures from Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. The COVID-19 incidence and stringency data are refreshed every hour; the provisional TB notifications are refreshed at least once per quarter. The dashboard will help national TB programs, USAID, implementing partners, universities, and others to visualize correlations that might arise through the data, supporting or challenging assumptions about the connections between COVID-19 and TB notifications.

The dashboard consists of three charts, each showing data for one country at a time for each of USAID’s TB priority countries.

Chart 1 depicts monthly TB notifications compared to monthly COVID-19 cases from 2020-2022 to see if increases or decreases in COVID-19 cases correlated with changes in the number of TB notifications.

Chart 2 depicts the same notifications as the previous chart, but with flags along the x-axis to indicate when various stringency measures occurred. Stringency measures are steps the government took to address COVID, such as shutting down schools or instituting mask mandates. This chart explores how some of these measures might have affected TB notifications, either by making it more difficult for people to get tested and informed of their results, or by preventing new TB cases.

Chart 3 compares TB notification yearly averages for 2020 and 2021 to 2019 (pre-pandemic); it also shows the TB notifications monthly average to show variation within years.

For a closer look, please visit the dashboard on the TB DIAH website here.