AP Covid Tally Mismatches With Centre's; Disparities Due To Technical Glitch Says State Health Dept

When the Centre's database showed that the positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the last week of June, the state displayed less than 5 per cent of district-wise positivity rate on an average

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has displayed an average positivity rate of less than 5 per cent in the last week of June while the Centre's Covid dashboard showed a positive rate of more than 10 per cent on average. These contradictory projections of the district-wise positivity rate by the Andhra Pradesh state health department and the Centre was reported for the period of June 25 to July 1. Now, the state health department has come up with a reason saying the disparity in the numbers of Covid positivity rate was due to a technical glitch and delay in updating of the tally.

According to The New Indian Express, in the Covid dashboard of the Union Ministry of Health, it was reported that the positivity rate of six districts in Andhra Pradesh was 10 per cent each between June 25 and July 1 and between 5 and 10 per cent in another six districts which were varying from state health department's tally. The state department tally mentioned that only five districts had a positivity rate of 5 per cent and it was less than 5 per cent in the rest of the eight districts. According to TNIE, Health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar said some Covid-19 cases from previous weeks were updated later due to server issues. “We are rectifying the same."

According to the Centre’s Covid dashboard, the weekly positivity rate in 3.67 per cent in Kurnool, 6.01 per cent in Srikakulam, 6.92 per cent in Vizianagaram, 7.08 per cent in Anantapur, 8.49 per cent in Kadapa, 9.25 per cent in Krishna, 9.61 per cent in Guntur, 10.22 per cent in Nellore, 10.54 per cent in West Godavari, 11.06 per cent in Prakasam, 11.68 per cent in Chittoor, 12.2 per cent in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari was 16.10 per cent. While the State Command Control Room (Covid-19) displayed the average positivity rate for the said period as less than 5 per cent.

The state health officials said the reason for the difference in the figures could be that in the central database information of the previous weeks were updated later due to a database error in the state.