US states warned over scaling back on reporting key Covid-19 data

Only about half of US states still provide daily updates on key Covid-19 metrics such as new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccinations, a trend that worries some public health experts, the media reported on Friday.

Two of the largest scale-backs took effect this week, with Florida dropping down to one update per week and Alabama cutting back to two to three updates per week, depending on the type of data, Xinhua reported citing a leading US media house.

Alabama's decision to publish updates less frequently came alongside steady decreases in daily cases, deaths and hospitalizations, Karen Landers, a health officer with the state health department, was quoted as saying.

"The changes are smaller and less dramatic, for lack of a better word," she said. "It's time to refocus our efforts."

Average daily COVID-19 cases in Alabama have dropped about 93 percent since their January peak. The state reported an average of 321 cases per day over the past week and 12 deaths per day, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Average daily reported cases in the US overall have also dropped more than 90 per cent since their January peak, down to about 15,000 per day, and back to levels last seen in March 2020. But about 300 people are still dying each day in the country, JHU data showed.

--IANS

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