Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's government has been giving out COVID-19 data on a regular basis since 2020, said Health Minister Veena George, who dismissed the Centre's claim that daily COVID reports are not available.

The assertions, according to the state's health minister, are "completely false." George indicated that the state government had just recently stopped publishing the daily bulletin in the state, but had instead been transmitting it to the National Surveillance Unit in the manner recommended by the federal government.

The Centre emailed the Kerala government on April 18 claiming that it is submitting COVID data after a five-day delay, which has influenced and distorted the status of India's key monitoring COVID indicators such as the number of cases, deaths, and positive rate.

"Allegations that Kerala government is withholding COVID data from the central government are completely false. Since 2020, we have been transmitting data and will continue to do so. It's only that we've ceased publishing the state's daily bulletin; we've been sending letters, etc "A day after Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal addressed a letter to Kerala's Principal Secretary of Health Rajan N Khobragade, George added.

"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," George said, describing the claims as "unfortunate."

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