K’taka, Kerala, Odisha top in quality COVID-19 reporting, says Stanford study

Disparities in COVID-19 data reporting in India have been a serious discussion for a while. Proving it right, researchers from Stanford University found that many states in India lagged behind in precision reporting of covid-19 cases.

Overall the quality of covid-19 reporting in India was only 0.26, which showed poor reporting across the country.

Researchers ranked the states according to its availability, accessibility, granularity and privacy. This framework was used to calculate a covid-19 data reporting score (CDRS) for 29 states during a two week period- from May 19 to June 1. CDRS ranged from 0(lowest) to 1 (highest).

The study by researchers from Stanford University, Tech Industry (USA) and Aerosol Industry (Switzerland) on covid-19 data reporting scores across India revealed that Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala are at the top for quality reporting.

The average scores for three top states were Karnataka (0.61), Kerala (0.52) and Odisha(0.51).
However states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have fared the worst in accurate data reporting and showed a poor rating of 0.0.

The study, which is yet to be peer-viewed, was published as a preprint ‘medRxiv’ on July 21.

According to the research, transparent and accessible reporting of covid-19 data is crucial for public health efforts.