Kerala Health Minister Veena George has denied allegations that the State had delayed sending data on daily Covid new cases and fatalities and filed them in bulk after April 13, skewing the key pandemic monitoring indicators including cases, deaths and positivity rate. 

The very fact that the letter from the Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare addressed to the Principal Secretary, Health, Kerala, was leaked to the media before it reached its destination gave the Centre’s game away, the Minister told newspersons here on Tuesday. 

Flaunts ‘digital proof’ 

The Minister suspected that the Centre’s disparaging remarks against the State on daily Covid data was an exercise to deflect attention from the bad press it received internationally for alleged fudging of fatalities during peak pandemic last year. 

“This state of affairs is as unsavoury as it is unfortunate. In fact, Kerala has submitted exact details in the prescribed format every single day from last week. Digital proofs tell no lies. The Principal Secretary will write back to the Centre attaching the email evidence to the effect,” the Minister said. 

It is true that the State had suspended its ritualistic daily Covid briefings in public with effect from April 10 after significant improvement in the situation on ground. It was the State government’s own decision. But it was collating data on a daily basis and analysing them before updating the Centre. 

200 daily cases on average

The State government proposes to collect data on a fortnightly basis and put in the public domain. If the situation were to deteriorate, it will revert to the daily Covid briefings. On an average, the State has been reporting 200 new cases on a daily basis over the last three to four days. 

On Monday, it was 209, the Minister said, throwing light on a resurgence in cases in the State. On April 10 when the daily data were published last in the public domain, the number was 223. There has been no major spike in deaths as is being made out to be but reconciliation of numbers based on appeals is apace. 

People are being told to prepare themselves to live with the virus going forward, the Minister said. They are being advised as well to wear a mask and observe hand sanitisting protocol to assure own safety. 

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