Table 1. Summary of methods used for COVID-19 incorporation into acute febrile illness surveillance systems in Belize, Kenya, Ethiopia, Peru, and Liberia, 2020–2021*.

Category	Belize	Kenya†	Ethiopia	Peru	Liberia
Surveillance start dates
AFI	2020 Jan	2006 Jan	2021 Feb	2021 Feb	2018 Dec
COVID-19 integration	2020 Mar	2020 May	2021 Feb	2021 Feb	2021 Apr
No. sites	11	2	4‡	5	2
Inclusion criteria
Age	>60 d	All ages	>5 y	>10 y	>2 y (AFI), >5 y (COVID-19)
Documented body temperature or history of fever	Axillary, oral, or rectal T >38°C or new fever <7 d before exam	Axillary T >38°C and <5 d of acute fever	Axillary, oral, or rectal T >38°C and fever for 2–14 d before exam	Axillary, oral, or rectal T >38°C and new fever <14 d before exam	Axillary, oral, or rectal T >37.5°C or fever <7 d before exam
Afebrile patients	>2 respiratory symptoms and high risk for or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection or >2 GI symptoms	None	None	None	None
Exclusion criteria
Surveillance protocol procedures	Previously enrolled within the past 7 d or declined follow up for disease outcomes	Previously enrolled	Previously enrolled	None	Previously enrolled within past year
Chief complaint on arrival or during hospitalization	Injury, trauma, or known cause of fever; returning with known cause of fever	Injury or trauma	Injury, trauma, focal infection, localizing symptoms, obstetric- or surgery-related cases	Focal infection or fever onset >24 h after hospitalization (inpatients only)	Injury, trauma, focal infection, returning with known cause of fever
Data use methods§
Collection	REDCap and paper-based form	Windows-based platform	Paper-based form	REDCap	Paper-based form
Management	REDCap	Microsoft SQL servers	Microsoft Excel	Microsoft Access	Epi Info
Specimens	Blood, NP/OP swabs, feces, eschar swabs	Blood, NP/OP swabs;¶ urine	Blood, NP/OP swabs¶	Blood, nasal MT swabs, saliva	Blood, NP swabs¶
COVID-19 testing methods	Singleplex RT-PCR,# BioFire FilmArray respiratory panel**	RT-PCR#	Singleplex PCR#	CDC COVID-19 assay#††	TaqPath COVID-19 CE-IVD RT-PCR#‡‡

*Data are sorted by COVID-19 integration month. AFI, acute febrile illness; GI, gastrointestinal; MT, mid-turbinate; NP, nasopharyngeal; OP, oropharyngeal; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR; T, temperature. †Data are from Kenya’s population-based infectious disease surveillance sites with survey-defined catchment areas. ‡Of 5 designated sites, only 4 were operational because of security issues. §REDCap (https://www.project-redcap.org); Microsoft Excel, Access, SQL Server, and Windows-based platform (https://www.microsoft.com); Epi Info (https://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo). ¶Additional specimens collected after COVID-19 surveillance integration into regular AFI surveillance activities. #Tests performed specifically for SARS-CoV-2. **BioFire (https://www.biofiredx.com). ††2019 nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/testing.html). ‡‡TaqPath COVID-19 CE-IVD RT-PCR kit, Thermo Fisher Scientific (https://www.thermofisher.com).