The Kerala government has responded to the Centre’s inquiry over the regular updating of coronavirus (COVID-19) data. A delay may cause inconsistencies in aggregate data given by the Indian Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. After India reported a 90% increase in Covid cases in a single day, the health ministry requested that Kerala send updated COVID-19 data on a daily basis on Monday.
According to the Centre, the significant surge in instances was caused by bulk back-reporting after April 13, implying a five-day delay until Monday. The reported latencies and anomalies might have affected pandemic monitoring data in the South Asian country, including cases, fatalities, and the positive rate. The health ministry provided daily Covid statistics on Tuesday (April 19), and there was a significant decrease in instances, with 1,247 infections registered in the previous 24 hours, down from 2,183 on Monday.
Lav Agarwal, the country’s Health Ministry Joint Secretary, stated in a two-page statement, ‘Kerala has provided its State-level COVID-19 data after a five-day delay [from April 13]. This has had an influence on and distorted the status of India’s major monitoring metrics, such as cases, fatalities, and positivity. India has observed a 90 per cent surge in new cases and a 165 per cent increase in positive ‘in a single day’, he noted. In response, Kerala’s State Health Minister Veena George stated on Tuesday (April 19) that they had been giving daily Covid numbers by e-mail.
‘Such an event has not happened, and we are all perplexed as to how the Centre can state such a thing because we have been giving the daily Covid statistics by e-mail every day. The Centre is spreading lies’, according to George, there were around 200 new instances on Monday. In a letter to Kerala’s Principal Secretary of Health, Rajan N. Khobragade, the Union Health Ministry demanded that the needed information be updated on a daily basis.
The letter stated that regular and rigorous data reporting is crucial to gaining a meaningful picture of the epidemic at the district, state, and national levels, as well as ensuring that any abnormalities, surges, or developing trends are caught in a timely way. ‘Quick and constant data updates would benefit India’s fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, not only in tracking and monitoring, but also in establishing strategies and plans at the Centre, State, and District levels,’ Agarwal said in the letter.
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