Hyderabad: With Covid-19 testing coming over the past three days, a review meeting on primary health centres (PHCs) had revealed that the targeted 150 samples per day were not being collected and data was fudged.
A health department bulletin said 89,037 samples were tested on Tuesday, against about 1.1 lakh per day last week.
Officials said discrepancies were noted as the tests were carried out for 30 to 40 people but data was submitted of 150 people. About 25 PHCs where these bogus entries were found have been pulled up, sources.
There was data of more than one lakh samples submitted every day, but after the meeting the data from these PHCs is being taken on its actual numbers.
A senior government health official explained, "The PHCs are understaffed and they are carrying out testing and vaccination. Both jobs are not possible. Also laboratory technicians and health assistants have not been paid for four months. They are going from the health department office to the Secretariat officials to get it cleared. To meet the targets there was fudged data submitted which has come out during the meetings."
The tests carried out in private diagnostic centres and hospitals are high and the data submitted to the government is not used, alleged officials. Another health official explained, "The data from private hospitals and diagnostic centres is included as and when required. It is not reported on a daily basis."
These discrepancies have led to a huge mismatch and the real numbers are not known.
While the medical bulletin records few new cases, people are worried as bordering states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are still reporting high numbers. These states are being monitored by the central health ministry for the daily rising new cases.
Due to this reason, state public health department has asked officials in the GHMC area, Karimnagar, Khammam, Medchal Malkajgiri, Nalgonda, Peddapalli, Ranga Reddy, Warangal Urban and Rural to be on alert.
