Table 1.

Results of meta-regression with incidence of COVID-19 as dependent variable by region & income group.

	Number of Countries (%)	Regression Coefficient (95% CI) for BCG (Per 10,000 Population)	P value
Global (160 Countries)
No BCG	20 (12.5)	Ref
≤70% Coverage	9 (5.6)	−6.5 (−8.4 to −4.5)	<0.001
>70% Coverage	131 (81.9)	−10.1 (−11.4 to −8.7)	<0.001
Region Wise
East Asia & Pacific (18)
No BCG	2 (11.1)	Ref
≤70% Coverage	1 (5.6)	−4.0 (−6.7 to −1.2)	0.004
>70% Coverage	15 (83.3)	−4.2 (−6.7 to −1.6)	0.001
Europe & Central Asia (40)
No BCG	13 (32.5)
≤70% Coverage	1 (2.5)	11.0 (−12.5 to 34.4)	0.359
>70% Coverage	26 (65.0)	−18.4 (−28.8 to −8.0)	0.001
Latin America & the Caribbean (27)
No BCG	1 (3.7)	Ref
>70% Coverage	26 (96.3)	−14.3 (-28.8 to 0.2)	0.054
Middle East & North Africa (18)
No BCG	2 (11.1)	Ref
≤70% Coverage	1 (5.6)	254.4 (198.8 to 310.0)	<0.001
>70% Coverage	15 (83.3)	290.0 (231.9 to 348.1)	<0.001
Income Group (World Bank)
Upper Middle Income (48)
No BCG	2 (4.2)	Ref
≤70% Coverage	2 (4.2)	0.5 (−9.8 to 10.7)	0.929
>70% Coverage	44 (91.7)	−3.2 (−10.5 to 4.2)	0.398
High Income (42)
No BCG	18 (42.9)	Ref
≤70% Coverage	1 (2.4)	16.7 (−12.2 to 45.7)	0.258
>70% Coverage	23 (54.8)	−17.7 (−27.2 to −8.1)	<0.001

Note 1: Adjusted for population density, income group, latitude, and percentage of total population under age groups 15–64 and above 65 years.

Note 2: Estimates cannot be calculated for South Asia and Sub-Saharan African region (8 and 47 countries respectively) because all these countries have implemented BCG policy. North American countries are not implementing BCG policy.