Decrease in compulsory notifications registered by the Brazilian National Hospital Epidemiological Surveillance Network during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study, 2017-2020. / Decréscimo nas notificações compulsórias registradas pela Rede Nacional de Vigilância Epidemiológica Hospitalar do Brasil durante a pandemia da COVID-19: um estudo descritivo, 2017-2020.

OBJECTIVE: To describe compulsorily notifiable diseases, health conditions and public health events (DAEs as per the Brazilian acronym) registered by the National Hospital Epidemiological Surveillance Network (RENAVEH as per the Brazilian acronym), before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This was a descriptive ecological study using records held on the Notifiable Health Conditions Information System (SINAN as per the Brazilian acronym) between Epidemiological Week (EW) 1 of 2017 (January 1st, 2017) and 52 of 2020 (December 26, 2020). RESULTS: Between 2017 and 2020, RENAVEH notified 1,258,455 DAE form records, with only 225,081 (17.9%) notifications in 2020, representing a decrease of 146,340 records compared to 2019. The temporal analysis showed a decrease per EW of more than 1,000 notified records with effect from EW 12. CONCLUSION: There was a decrease in compulsorily notifiable DAEs registered by RENAVEH in Brazil taking the period analyzed as a whole, in particular in 2020.