The Maharashtra government has, for the first time, admitted that there were discrepancies in the data released on COVID-19. Several instances have emerged of deaths being accounted under comorbidity instead of the virus. Therefore, the state government has asked all the district collectors and municipal commissioners to reconcile the number of deaths by Monday evening. They have been told, under the provisions of the Epidemic Act, 1897, to report all deaths, irrespective of the cause, if found positive for the virus.
The government swung into action after it received complaints with regards to the reporting of less number of deaths in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and a couple of other districts.
Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta told the Free Press Journal, “Each district and municipal corporation, during the data reconciliation, will inform the number of cases discharged, number of COVID-19 deaths, active cases, status of active caseS (symptomatic, critical, asymptomatic and others) out of the list generated till the midnight of June 6. Any data mismatch brought to notice subsequently would be viewed very seriously.’’ He informed that a state government team will examine the data and declare the findings.
Mehta said the government would not hide any data, but reveal it after the reconciliation exercise. He reiterated the government will take action against those who were responsible for hiding data on the deaths or mismatch in the data.
Public Health Secretary Pradeep Vyas, in his communication to the district collectors and municipal commissioners, said it is necessary to know the exact load of active cases so as to better plan and utilise the health infrastructure. “Hence, a detailed data reconciliation exercise has been undertaken till midnight of June 6. Data will be shared with all district and municipal corporations on June 10,’’ he added.
Initially, laboratories used to inform the results of swab over email or phone to the Public Health Department followed by the hard copy of results. Sometimes, such reports were also directly sent to concerned district collectors and municipal commissioners. Subsequently, the Union Ministry of Health started a COVID-19 portal, which underwent several improvements and versions. Later, Government of India provided direct access to Indian Council of Medical Research portal, in which all ICMR-approved laboratories are entering results almost on a real-time basis.
