Disparity in the quality of COVID-19 data reporting across India

Abstract

Background. Transparent and accessible reporting of COVID-19 data is critical for public health efforts. Each state and union territory (UT) of India has its own mechanism for reporting COVID-19 data, and the quality of their reporting has not been systematically evaluated. We present a comprehensive assessment of the quality of COVID-19 data reporting done by the Indian state and union territory governments. This assessment informs the public health efforts in India and serves as a guideline for pandemic data reporting by other governments. Methods. We designed a semi-quantitative framework to assess the quality of COVID-19 data reporting done by the states and union territories of India. This framework captures four key aspects of public health data reporting - availability, accessibility, granularity, and privacy. We then used this framework to calculate a COVID-19 Data Reporting Score (CDRS, ranging from 0 to 1) for 29 states based on the quality of COVID-19 data reporting done by the state during the two-week period from 19 May to 1 June, 2020. States that reported less than 10 total confirmed cases as of May 18 were excluded from the study. Findings. Our results indicate a strong disparity in the quality of COVID-19 data reporting done by the state governments in India. CDRS varies from 0.61 (good) in Karnataka to 0.0 (poor) in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with a median value of 0.26. Only ten states provide a visual representation of the trend in COVID-19 data. Ten states do not report any data stratified by age, gender, comorbidities or districts. In addition, we identify that Punjab and Chandigarh compromised the privacy of individuals under quarantine by releasing their personally identifiable information on the official websites. Across the states, the CDRS is positively associated with the state's sustainable development index for good health and well-being (Pearson correlation: r=0.630, p=0.0003). Interpretation. The disparity in CDRS across states highlights three important findings at the national, state, and individual level. At the national level, it shows the lack of a unified framework for reporting COVID-19 data in India, and highlights 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 nationwide response to the pandemic. Moreover, 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 states in the coming months. The disparate reporting score also reflects inequality in individual access to public health information and privacy protection based on the state of residence. Funding. J.Z. is supported by NSF CCF 1763191, NIH R21 MD012867-01, NIH P30AG059307, NIH U01MH098953 and grants from the Silicon Valley Foundation and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.

Social network analysis methods for exploring SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing data

“…However, it also necessitates the availability of a properly line listed and linked patientcontact data. While we have used considerably large data available during the initial months of the pandemic, the availability of such data is only rare in most settings [35]. Thus our proposed methods also implicitly recommend for continuous collection and systematic management of contact tracing data using unique identification numbers (IDs) for all patients and their identified contacts.…”

Health Heatmap of India: An Open Data Platform

“…These initiatives need to be sustained in the post pandemic world providing reliable open data on health and diseases with a wide range of related interdisciplinary variables. 11 The Health Heatmap (HHM) initiative which is a part of the preparatory phase project of the National Mission for Biodiversity and Human Well-Being 12 supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, focuses on developing an open data platform for aggregating data. The HHM will integrate open data on health with the documentation of India's biodiversity, traditional knowledge and cultural practices related to medicinal plants and their conservation.The HHM is intended to be an important resource for the One Health initiative, integrating human health data with environmental and animal health.…”

“…These initiatives need to be sustained in the post pandemic world providing reliable open data on health and diseases with a wide range of related interdisciplinary variables. 11…”

Assessment of COVID-19 data reporting in 100+ websites and apps in India

“…• The second COVID-19 wave is significantly larger than the first and led to a severe shortage of resources like oxygen beds. [6] Therefore, it is important to know if the surveillance reporting adapted to the worsening pandemic [7,8] and if there was reporting on the resources that were in shortage.…”