C-MOR – Research Consortium and Platform for Monitoring Overall and Cause-Specific Mortality Resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Project led by the University of Nicosia Medical School

The University of Nicosia Medical School is coordinating an international consortium of partners with the aim to create a reference dataset focused on mortality resulting from COVID-19 (https://www.unic.ac.cy/coronavirus/mortality/). The C-MOR project has three core features, namely open access data, global coverage and the creation of a public platform for sharing project results. It is anticipated that the C-MOR project will help decision-makers identify key insights for the response to this pandemic and future ones.

Currently, the project has more than 50 partners from countries across six continents as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Countries participating in the C-MOR project

For the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March to August 2020) partners from 22 countries have managed to collect and contribute to the C-MOR project all-cause and COVID-19 mortality data. The data have been analysed in the past couple of months and a publication is currently under preparation. The specific objectives of this publication are:

• To investigate differences in all-cause mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic and over the same months in the previous 5 years
• To identify the percentage contribution of COVID-19 deaths to the excess mortality observed in specific counties
• To investigate excess mortality in the context of country specific COVID-19 control measures

The results of this publication highlight the importance of mortality surveillance in studying the burden of COVID-19, the impact of COVID-19 control measures on the mortality experience of different countries, and the challenges that are involved when attempting between-country comparisons of COVID-19 mortality burden.

As many countries are now experiencing a second wave of the pandemic, and as this second wave has proven deadlier for the majority of countries, the C-MOR consortium will continue to compile and analyse data to further explore the timeline of COVID-19 mortality burden, worldwide.

The C-MOR project coordinating team is actively searching for new partners, particularly in countries where we have no existing partners. We are also seeking individual volunteers with computer and data analysis skills. If you would like to join the C-MOR consortium, please reach out by emailing the C-MOR project coordinator at [email protected].