/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/66RYSDNXIZFMXE3GIVY3NU2HX4.JPG "The mystery of Madrid: why it reports a data of new contagions by coronavirus less than real every day | Madrid")
On Monday, May 18, the Community of Madrid reported to the Ministry of Health that there were fewer PCR positives accumulated in the region since the start of the coronavirus crisis than the previous day: 66,302 compared to 66,338. That impossible statistic, justified by the count error of a laboratory that had forced to reconstruct the series, expanded the controversy around the data that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso is contributing to the central Executive just when the two discuss if the conditions are met so that the region goes to phase 1 of the de-escalation. Thus, Madrid reports a new contagion data lower than the real one every day, and subsequently modifies it, altering the historical series by changing the balance of past days. The consequence is that the real number of infections in Madrid tripled in May to that published by the Ministry in its daily part, according to Servimedia, and that a key piece of information to decide on de-escalation (the cumulative incidence of the disease in the last 14 days) it may be completely distorted.
“It has a simple explanation,” said Enrique Ruiz-Escudero, Minister of Health, on Tuesday. “The case is added to the day the sample was taken,” he explained. “Sometimes laboratories do not have the same speed of communicating cases, and each one is assigned to the day in which the sample is taken, which is honest, the most accurate from the epidemiological point of view and is according to the situation of the patient ”, he has argued. And he insisted: “Not all laboratories have the same speed.”
The dance of figures is impossible to follow. This Tuesday, for example, Madrid has reported 92 cases in the last 24 hours, and 341 new additions that have been distributed between previous days, altering the entire record. Madrid gives the Ministry the cases by date of the sample, while the other Communities give them by date in which the cases are notified.
Therefore, the data that Madrid provides every day do not reflect the reality of how the epidemic is affecting it. We have to wait several days for them to consolidate. And that has aroused the suspicions of other regions, which see this technique as a subterfuge to convey the image that the impact of the pandemic is being less than it really is.
The delay in the notification of coronavirus cases in Madrid requires changes to the national statistics
–“If we cheat the solitary, we will pay for it,” warned Francisco Igea, doctor and vice president of the Community of Castilla y León, a region that has distinguished itself from Madrid due to its prudence (it has requested the passage to phase 1 by zones, and not in full) and political coordination (PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos and Unidas Podemos maintain a fluid dialogue).
“The reviews of Madrid force to redo the historical series”, confirm from the Ministry of Health. Even so, in its daily reports the ministry continues to provide as “new cases” those that Madrid contributes according to the date of the test sample.
What are the consequences? The real number of covid-19 infections in the Community of Madrid tripled in May what the Ministry of Health publishes in its daily part, according to Servimedia. Specifically, in the last seven days it accumulated 976 new cases instead of the 402 reported by the department of Salvador Illa and last weekend it reached 3,003 positives instead of 1,065.
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