Discrepancies in VMC, state Covid data remain; city’s number higher

Vadodara: When it comes to Covid-19 data, those compiling figures in Vadodara and in Gandhinagar do not seem to agree. After drawing the flak as numbers shown by Vadodara officials were lower as compared to the state health bulletin, it is now the turn of Vadodara to show much higher numbers than that by the state bulletin.
The difference in data has been observed for quite some time now. While it is expected that there could be some discrepancy, the difference in numbers has been glaring at times.
When the issue was raised earlier, officials had said that they were looking into the issue and would find out the reason. But the difference remained and even many citizens were confused when they saw different data at different places.
While there is no major difference in the number of daily deaths declared by the state against those declared by Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), that makes a combined bulletin for the city and district, the difference in the number of positive cases can differ by as high as 200. This had reached 278 on May 20.
The number of daily deaths may not differ much, but when it comes to the total number of deaths, a major difference is observed.
Against 580 deaths admitted by the VMC, the number stands at 737 on the Covid-19 tracker of the state government on Monday evening. Interestingly, neither the health bulletin issued by the state government nor the tracker gives the total number of cases detected in Vadodara. But if one were to add up the number of live cases, deaths and recovered patients on the dashboard, it can be concluded that by Monday evening Vadodara had 70,914 Covid cases. At the other end, the figure stands at 65,644 in the VMC bulletin.
An official in the VMC said that the discrepancies had been pointed out to those who were responsible in the state government, but the problem had still remained. He held that the data released locally was up to the mark.