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Centre blames Kerala for India's sudden Covid spike, told to report data daily

The Union Health Ministry has blamed Kerala for the country reporting a 90 per cent spike in the number of daily Coronavirus cases and a jump in the number of Covid-related deaths. 

Centre blames Kerala for India's sudden Covid spike
Author
New Delhi, First Published Apr 18, 2022, 9:44 PM IST

The Union Health Ministry has blamed Kerala for the country reporting a 90 per cent spike in the number of daily Coronavirus cases and a jump in the number of Covid-related deaths. 

Luv Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, has shot a letter to Kerala's principal health secretary Rajan Khobragade. In the letter, the official said, "It has been observed that Kerala has reported its state-level Covid-19 data after a gap of five days. This has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring indicators like cases, death and positivity in a single day." 

The state government did not update the Covid-19 data since April 13. On April 18, it reported a total of 940 new cases and 213 new deaths. However, pan-India data of new cases stands at 2,183 while new deaths at 214. This means that only one death was reported in the rest of the country. 

While the Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.76 per cent, India's active caseload is at 11,542. The daily positivity rate was seen at 0.83 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.32 per cent. According to government data, over 2.61 lakh tests were conducted in the country in the last 24 hours.

The ministry directed the state health authority that it is important to update Covid data daily for taking proactive steps to tackle new variants. 

The quick and continuous updating of Covid-19 statistics will help in India's fight against the pandemic and assist not only in tracking and monitoring but also to define the strategies and plans at the Centre, state and district levels, the letter said.

On April 8, the Centre had also written to five states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana and Mizoram and urged them to observe strict watch and ensure pre-emptive action to control any emerging spread of the Covid-19 infection. The national capital, New Delhi is among the cities that witnessed a surge in cases. 

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