NEW DELHI: The central government on Monday came down heavily on the Kerala government for reporting Covid-19 data after a gap of five days. The Union health ministry said this has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring indicators like Covid cases, deaths and positivity rate.
“It has been observed that Kerala has reported its state-level Covid-19 data after a gap of five days (since 13 April),” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the union health ministry, in a letter to Dr. Rajan N Khobragade, Kerala principal secretary (health).
“This has impacted and skewed India’s key indicators like cases, deaths, and positivity,” he said, adding that “India has reported a 90 percent increase in new cases and 165 percent increase in positivity in a single day.”
Owing to the backlog by Kerala, which reported 940 cases on Monday, the country’s Covid tally went up to 2,183 cases in the last 24 hours. The state also reported 213 coronavirus deaths which included backlog deaths, according to the data shared by the health ministry.
“Daily and diligent reporting of data is critical to arrive at a meaningful understanding of the pandemic in the districts, state, and national level and ensure that any anomalies, surge, or emerging trends can be captured promptly,” the letter said.
It said this is especially relevant as it is a highly infectious disease and also has an associated risk of emergence of new variants.
“Quick and continuous update of data will assist in India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and help not only in tracking and monitoring but will also help in defining the strategies and plans at the center, state and district level,” it said.