The full impact of the pandemic has been much greater than what is indicated by reported deaths due
to COVID-19 alone. Strengthening death registration systems around the world, long understood to be crucial to
global public health strategy, is necessary for improved monitoring of this pandemic and future pandemics. In
addition, further research is warranted to help distinguish the proportion of excess mortality that was directly caused
by SARS-CoV-2 infection and the changes in causes of death as an indirect consequence of the pandemic