Gender differences in COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

To gain more accurate understanding of gender differences in COVID-19 prevalence, fatality and mortality, it is important to analyse the data by age and sex and standardise summary indicators for age and sex distribution of the population.
We aim to collect and analyse comparable data on reported COVID-19 infections and deaths by age (10-year age groups) and sex for around 10 European countries and compute standardised indicators of reported COVID-19 infections, deaths rates, infection fatality rates and case fatality rates. The initial stage of our research focuses on the dynamics in reported covid-19 infections by age and sex during the first and the second wave of the pandemic in Europe, from February until December 2020.

We address the following questions:

(1) Are men more likely to get infected than women?
(2) Does the gender profile of infections vary by age?
(3) Which age groups are more likely to get infected?
(4) Are these patterns similar across countries?
(5) How are these patterns changing over time?
(6) Are our findings further supported by testing and seroprevalence data?