Thread by @RijoMJohn

Thread on COVID testing data

It's been a month since @ICMRDELHI has been reporting at least 100K fewer tests than the tests reported by all states combined. This discrepancy has been growing & is over 3L for the past several weeks.

What does it mean? What implications?
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In the past, this difference used to get reconciled over time. But, this time, this difference is so large & not been reconciled for a long time.
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Few plausible reasons:
1) ICMR only reports tests coming from its own approved labs & states maybe adding testing numbers from unrecognized labs too
2)States inflating the testing numbers on paper for various reasons
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For us to verify if states are inflating the numbers & if so which states, we need to have daily state-level data on testing as reported by @ICMRDELHI. However, no such data released ICMR. It only provides a daily national aggregate testing number.

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Implications:
1) Nationally reported test positivity rates based on ICMR testing numbers isn't a true representation of TPR in different states
2) Unless the state testing numbers aren't corroborated by ICMR, it isn't clear what to make of reported daily tests/TPRs from states
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Bottomline:

India has a major data problem while dealing with this pandemic! Accurate testing data is only one such problem.

Maybe this is something our COVID data journalists could probe further.