Delhi Covid-19 data devoid of area break-up; citizens in dark

Delhi has 86 containment zones -- areas where either cases or the threat of cases is high, and where movement is restricted, surveillance is tighter, and essentials are hand-delivered. But experts say that a map of containment zones already earmarked by the government is not the same as citywide locality data.

With Delhi’s Covid-19 cases crossing the 5,000 mark and its doubling rate quickening from 12.9 to 11.2 in the last 10 days, the clamour for area-specific data has started to grow -- so that residents can get better awareness of the threat perception in their respective localites and independent experts can have a deeper understanding of the spread of the highly contagious pathogen across the Capital.

Migrant workers and homeless people seen at Yamuna Sports Complex turned into shelter home during lockdown in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

The official daily bulletin put out by the Delhi health department every night records the number of new and cumulative cases, deaths and recoveries, but does not mention which areas the cases are coming from. It is not that such data is not tabulated -- HT has learnt that a heat map of all the city’s Covid-19 cases is prepared by Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL), a subsidiary of the Delhi government, but there are directions from the state administration that it not be released to the public.

A senior GSDL official, who asked not to be named, said there were plans to make the map public on the government’s coronavirus disease website (delhifightscorona.in) launched on April 28, but they were not followed through.He said that though there were some data collection issues and backlog, the map they had prepared by Wednesday had between 3,500 to 4,000 cases (of the Capital’s 5,104) infections in it.

When contacted, Nutan Mundeja, Delhi’s director general of health services (DGHS) confirmed that the state government is maintaining area-specific data. “It is not just areas, we have address wise information as well. Who is the person, what is he doing - we have all of it,” she said, adding that it is perhaps not being made public due to privacy concerns.

“People can see the live map of the containment zones at delhifightscorona.in,” she said.

Delhi has 86 containment zones -- areas where either cases or the threat of cases is high, and where movement is restricted, surveillance is tighter, and essentials are hand-delivered. But experts say that a map of containment zones already earmarked by the government is not the same as citywide locality data. They also ask that while there may be privacy concerns over releasing addresses of patients, what stops the government from plotting Delhi’s cases across its thousands of colonies, 272 wards, or at least 70 assembly segments.

“The information has to be at the community level because people want to know what is happening in their colony or neighbourhood. Everyone is trying to figure out what is best for them and their community. The meaning of pandemic itself means it’s a public health crisis. So all agencies have to do more than what they are doing,” said Shamika Ravi, senior fellow at Brookings Institution.

“In Delhi’s case, data released by the government is inadequate,” she added.

Instead of sharing more data, the Delhi government on Wednesday directed the administrations of three of city’s 11 revenue districts -- the ones that made their own Covid-19 bulletins -- to stop releasing any information regarding area-specific case counts and testing to the public. As a result, only the New Delhi district issued its localised bulletin on Wednesday and it did not have any location or testing data. However, no official order was issued.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia did not respond to calls and messages seeking a comment. Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain declined to speak on the issue.

There are several examples from across the country of detailed area-wise maps being released by states and cities. Mumbai, for example, releases a heat map of cases in the city as well as keeps interactive map (stopcoronavirus.mcgm.gov.in) that lists quarantine zones etc; the Madhya Pradesh government updates detailed information cases on an interactive map that can locate cases down to precise addresses; the Odisha government puts out maps marking localities of all cases in Bhubaneshwar on its website (health.odisha.gov.in/covid19-dashboard.html); as do Kerala (website dashboard.kerala.gov.in) and Gujarat (gujcovid19.gujarat.gov.in), to name a few. However, on the delhifightscorona.in the testing data was updated only till April 29.

Dr Jugal Kishore, head of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said data is often not readily available in Delhi because of multiplicity of authorities.

“In Delhi, it is a problem because there are various parties -- Delhi cantonment board, the Central government, the railways, the army, the municipal corporations. Often they do not openly share information with each other. There are some who are directly sending daily data to the Indian Council of Medical Research. Sometimes this creates a problem in even identifying a patient and doing contact tracing,” said Kishore.

“Take the example of Kerala, the state has been able to curb the number of infections because the line of command is one,” he added.

But some district magistrates said there is data crisis also within the system.

“Now that so many health workers are testing positive, the DMs need information of such people to do contact tracing and break the chain. But, the Central government hospitals often do not share such information with us readily. We have to do multiple follow-up and sometimes even request personally for the same,” said one of Delhi’s DMs on condition of anonymity.

Atul Goyal, president of URJA, an association of RWAs in Delhi, said knowing the number of cases in localities, or neighbouring areas would help RWAs take necessary measures to protect the area. “People will also be careful in their behaviours. Besides, lack of information from the government’s side also leads to rumours and trust deficit. The uncertainty over the number of cases in a neighbourhood also leads to anxiety,” he said.