The Union government has written to the Kerala government asking it to continue updating daily COVID-19 cases and deaths reported across the state, adding that the lack of data from Kerala is impacting national statistics. Kerala had last week announced that it will not be releasing daily COVID-19 case updates in view of the decreasing number of cases. However, on April 18, the Kerala government released data after a gap of four days, which has led to India reporting a sudden 90% increase in COVID-19 cases. This, the government said, “has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring indicators like cases, deaths, and positivity. India has reported a 90% increase in new cases, and 165% increase in positivity in a single day.”
In a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Health Department in Kerala, Union Health Secretary Lav Agarwal has said that daily reporting of data helps understand the impact of the pandemic at the ground level, and helps track any anomalies or sudden rise in cases. “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,” the letter to Kerala says.
The letter noted that Kerala reported 298 new cases on April 13 and 940 new cases on April 18. This led to a sharp increase in cases for India as well, with 796 new cases on April 13 and 2,183 new cases on April 18. The letter also pointed out that India had been reporting zero COVID-19 deaths for the past few days, but since Kerala reported a cumulative 214 deaths on April 18, the number of deaths also went up by 214 on April 18.
The Union government in its letter to Kerala
Last week the state government had said that COVID-19 updates will no longer be available in view of the decrease in the number of infections. Kerala recently lifted all state-imposed COVID-19 containment measures in the state. The announcement was made on April 7 via a Government Order issued by Chief Secretary Dr VP Joy.