Accurate and timely data are crucial to identify risks early, inform policy decision making, and guide a country’s actions to manage the pandemic.
To make sure the best possible information is available, collecting it from a range of different sources is key, not just for COVID-19 but for any public health threat.
A real advantage for the COVID-19 response in Lao PDR has been the long-term investment in building a national health information system based on software called the District Health Information System, or DHIS2.
WHO has been supporting the development and implementation of this system here since 2013. Lao PDR managed to rapidly design, develop and implement a new COVID-19 tracker, based on the existing DHIS2 system within 3