NEW DELHI: What the Union health ministry described as “an occasional lag", a month ago has now become a daily affair. The ministry is out of sync with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) over data on novel coronavirus infections in the country.
The discrepancy has been evident since the day both started displaying data on their websites. Typically, ICMR's numbers are higher than those of the ministry.
For instance, the ministry on Sunday said the number of infections rose to 16,116 but the ICMR website recorded 17,615 covid-19 cases.
But despite an everyday occurrence, the government has continued call the lag "occasional". The lag can range from 200 to 2,000 on a given day. “We report numbers only after coordinating with states