Did Kerala fail to send Covid 19 reports to Centre? Absolutely wrong says Veena George

New Delhi, Apr 20: Kerala Health Minister Veena George had denied the allegations of failing to send Covid-19 data to the Centre, stating that the state is regularly giving data to the Union Health Ministry.

According to George, Kerala has only stopped updating daily bulletin in the state but has been sending out updates to National Surveillance Unit in the format suggested by the Centre.

"Allegations that Kerala government is not giving COVID data to the Centre are absolutely wrong. We've been sending data since 2020, and continue to do so. It's just that we have stopped publishing daily bulletin in the state; have been sending mails," ANI quoted George as saying after the letter was sent by Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal to Kerala's Principal Secretary of Health Rajan N Khobragade.

She termed it as "unfortunate" and stated, "We are giving daily (COVID) report to National Surveillance Unit in the format suggested by Union Government; quite unfortunate that a responsible person from Union Government is sending a letter to Principal Secretary stating that Kerala is not giving data to the Centre."

On April 18, the Centre wrote a letter to the Kerala government stating that it is reporting COVID data after a gap of five days, which has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring COVID indicators like the number of cases, deaths and positivity rate.

"Daily and diligent reporting of data is critical to arrive at a meaningful understanding of the pandemic in districts, state and national level and ensure that any anomalies, surge or emerging trends can be captured in a timely manner," Agarwal stated in the letter.

He added, "It has been observed that Kerala has reported its state-level COVID-19 data after a gap of five days (since April 13). This has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring indicators like cases, deaths and positivity. India has reported a 90 per cent increase in new cases and 165 per cent increase in positivity in a single day,"