Centre Pulls Up Kerala For Not Updating COVID-19 Data Daily

The letter said that the Union Health Ministry has emphasised strengthening the system of daily reporting of state-wise cases and deaths.

A health worker collects swab samples from a woman to test for Covid-19 (File photo: AFP)

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Monday has asked the Kerala government to provide updated data related to COVID-19 every day.

The central government took note of the fact that the state government provides data related to coronavirus infection at an interval of five days, due to which the data related to the epidemic in India such as the number of infections, the number of dead and the rate of infection- are affected.

Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal, wrote a letter to Principal Secretary (Health) of Kerala, Dr. Rajan N. Khobragade, saying that daily and accurate data is essential for a meaningful understanding of the pandemic situation.

"It has been observed that Kerala has reported its COVID-19 state-level data after a gap of 5 days since April 13," reads the letter.

The letter said that the Union Health Ministry has emphasised strengthening the system of daily reporting of state-wise cases and deaths.

"Quick and continuous update of data will assist in India's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and will help not only in tracking and monitoring but will also help in defining the strategies and plans at the Centre, State and District level," Lav Agarwal said in the letter.

"Accordingly, you are requested to ensure that the updated daily reports are submitted by the state government to the Union Health Ministry," the letter said.

In recent days, cases of coronavirus have increased in Delhi, UP and Haryana. In the last 24 hours, the death of 214 patients from infection has also been registered. There are 11,542 active cases in the country. In the last 24 hours, 2,61,440 tests of COVID-19 were done. So far more than 83 crore tests have been done.