Variances in BCG protection against COVID-19 mortality: A global assessment

•We identified 10 (most and least) COVID-19 afflicted countries as per mortality.•Mortality was computed 30 days post-pandemic incidence before March 31, 2020.•The countries were also tabulated based on the first 100 confirmed cases.•The top 10 countries had BCG recommendations for only specific groups.•In general, the top 10 countries had a lower incidence of TB.•Spain, Belgium, and the United Kingdom had an incidence of >5/100,000 persons.•The overall poverty headcount ratio was low in the top 10 countries.•All the countries in the top 10 had BCG national policies for specific groups.•The education index was high in the top 10 countries, between 0.79 until 0.89.•Nearly 16–25% of the total population was aged >65 in the top 10 countries.•Bottom 10 countries had current national BCG vaccination policies for all at birth.•Bottom 10 countries had higher incidence of TB, from 12-554/100,000 persons.•The poverty headcount ratio was variable in India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.•In these countries, the TB of incidence was higher in correlation to the poverty index.•The education index was consistently lower than the top 10 countries except for South Korea.•The bottom 10 countries had fewer percentages (4-11%) of the population aged > 65.•South Korea and Russia were exceptions to the previous finding.•Preliminary data supports the protective effects of BCG on COVID-19 mortality.