Public health surveillance is the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice. For surveillance of COVID-19, and the virus that causes it, SARS-COV-2, CDC is using multiple surveillance systems run in collaboration with state, local, territorial, and academic partners to monitor COVID-19 disease in the United States. COVID-19 surveillance draws from a combination of data sources from existing influenza and viral respiratory disease surveillance, syndromic surveillance, case reporting, commercial lab reporting, the healthcare safety system, ongoing research platforms, and other new systems designed to answer specific questions. These systems, combined, create an updated, accurate picture of SARS-COV-2 spread and its effects in the United States and provide data used to inform the U.S. national public health response to COVID-19.

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection