A group of researchers from Stanford University has published a study that highlights major gaps and disparities in Covid-19 reporting by states and union territories in India and found that Goa has not been reporting date as per their requirement.
The report also says that Goa’s Covid cases reporting (CDRS) is at 0.21 which is well below national average.
“States like Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh did not report any data stratified by age, gender, comorbidities, or districts, factors that are known to have a correlation with covid19 fatality rate, found the study,” the report says.
The study was conducted during the two-week period from May 19 to June 1, 2020. During this time, 29 states were assessed. In each state, the first case was reported at least 30 days prior to May 19. Hence, each of these states had at least a month’s time before the assessment to build a high-quality data reporting system.
It is pertinent to note here that as on June 1, 2020, Goa had just 73 confirmed cases and only 29 active with no fatalities.
Hence, the not much could be read in the report of Standford university.
Further the report says, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh ranked worst in the Covid-19 data reporting, while Karnataka ranked best. However, the quality of Covid-19 reporting in India was only 0.26, which showed poor reporting across the country, found the study titled – ‘Disparity in the quality of Covid-19 data reporting across India’ – which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
The research also found that only 10 states provided a visual representation of the trend in Covid-19 data, and 10 states did not report any data stratified by age, gender, comorbidities or districts. In addition, the researchers also stated that Punjab and Chandigarh compromised the privacy of individuals under quarantine by releasing their personally identifiable information on the official websites.
The best data reporting has been done by Karnataka (0.61), Kerala (0.52), Odisha (0.51), Puducherry (0.51), and Tamil Nadu (0.51).
Uttar Pradesh (0.0), Bihar (0.0), Meghalaya (0.13), Himachal Pradesh (0.13), and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (0.17) are at the bottom.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh did not publish any data on their government or health department website. Hence their Covid-19 Data Reporting Score (CDRS) is 0. Although, Bihar seems to release some data on Twitter.
Karnataka and Punjab scored the highest in data availability. Both these states reported the daily and total numbers for confirmed, deceased and recovered cases. They also reported Covid-19 cases in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Historical data is available for both the states in the form of daily bulletins.
The disparity in CDRS across the states highlights three important findings at the national, state, and individual level:
First, it shows the lack of a unified framework for reporting Covid-19 data in India, and the need for a central agency to monitor or audit the quality of data reporting done by the states. Without a unified framework, it is difficult to aggregate the data from different states, gain insights from them, and coordinate an effective national response to the pandemic. It signifies transparency and hence increases public trust in the government. Containment becomes easier when the public is well-informed.
Second, it reflects the inadequacy in coordination or sharing of resources among the states in India. Coordination among states is particularly important as more people start moving across the states in the coming months. While it might not be possible for all the states to setup a high-quality dashboard in a short time, they can seek help and learn from the best data reporting practices followed by the other states.
Third, the disparate reporting score also reflects inequality in individual access to public health information and privacy protection based on the state of residence. The inequality highlights that the state-level efforts do not align with the central government’s vision of treating public health data as a public good, within the legal framework of data privacy.
Methodology of the research:
The study points to the quality of data being reported from states and union territories in India based on four key aspects of public health data reporting availability, accessibility, granularity, and privacy.
