If you have been involved in monitoring and observing data for COVID-19 you may have seen a category Cases being reassigned to states or Unassigned. These were the numbers that were added on the MOHFW site as a “Cases being reassigned to states” category.

Unassigned category

Many of you asked us on various mediums about this category as the total count would reduce/increase every morning based on this category.

So, one of our volunteers had filed an RTI (Right to Information) to get the details about this category with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 20/06/2020. It was transferred to NCDCD (National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi) on 20/06/2020. NCDC is the institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was established in July 1963 for research in epidemiology and control of communicable diseases and to reorganize the activities of the Malaria Institute of India.
The reason for transferring was that the data regarding COVID-19 is monitored under IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme). It is the backbone of India’s disease monitoring network and is set up under NCDC. It is responsible for alerting the central government and the wider world on a weekly basis about the emergence of disease outbreaks, surge in novel pathogens, the rate of spread and remedial action taken to control diseases.

RTI application

A reply has been provided by NCDCD on 17/07/2020 with some details which are mentioned below. But for now, the RTI has been transferred to ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) for further details (ICMR is the second authority with NCDCD which is involved in COVID-19 activities).

  • Q1: Provide the details of the criteria used to define the cases being reassigned to states Category on the Ministry of Health & Family welfare website (https://www.mohfw.gov.in/) for collection of the data relating to COVID-19.
    Reply: Information is not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q2: Provide the details of location where these samples of these cases of COVID-19 are collected.
    Reply: More than 900 laboratories are authorized by Indian Council of Medical Research for testing of COVID-19 cases details of which are available on ICMR website (www.icmr.gov.in).

  • Q3: Provide the breakup of total number of cases re-assigned to each states till now (in a date-wise order).
    Reply: Information sought at point No. 3 & 4 pertains to ICMR thus not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q4: Provide the details of total number of cases collected in this category (cases being reassigned to states) till date.
    Reply: Information sought at point No. 3 & 4 pertains to ICMR thus not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q5: Provide the details of why this category (cases being reassigned to states) was added.
    Reply: Information sought at point No. 5,6,&7 is not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q6: Provide the details till when this category (cases being reassigned to states) may remain on the website.
    Reply: Information sought at point No. 5,6,&7 is not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q7: Provide the details of the time needed to re-assign these cases of COVID-19 in the category of (Cases being reassigned to states)to the respective states.
    Reply: Information sought at point No. 5,6,&7 is not available with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

  • Q8: Provide the details of the Cut-off time of the respective states regarding there data of COVID-19 which is uploaded on the website of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare(https://www.mohfw.gov.in/)
    Reply: The data regarding COVID – 19 cases of the respective States is uploaded on the website of Ministry Welfare Website(https://www.mohfw.gov.in/) on daily basis.

RTI Response

Timeline of Unassigned Cases:
The table below gives the details about the changes that occurred in the Unassigned cases category over a period of time.

Date Total Cases Unassigned Changes(+/-)
19/05/2020 814 NA
20/05/2020 1096 +282
21/05/2020 1403 +307
22/05/2020 1620 +217
23/05/2020 1899 +279
24/05/2020 2338 +439
25/05/2020 2642 +304
26/05/2020 2970 +328
27/05/2020 4013 +1043
28/05/2020 4332 +319
29/05/2020 4673 +341
30/05/2020 5043 +370
31/05/2020 5491 +448
01/06/2020 5630 +139
02/06/2020 6414 +784
03/06/2020 7123 +709
04/06/2020 7483 +360
05/06/2020 7610 +127
06/06/2020 8192 +582
07/06/2020 8610 +418
08/06/2020 7837 -773
09/06/2020 8711 +874
10/06/2020 9227 +516
11/06/2020 8931 -296
12/06/2020 8315 -616
13/06/2020 7984 -331
14/06/2020 7436 -548
15/06/2020 6972 -464
16/06/2020 7684 +712
17/06/2020 8273 +589
18/06/2020 8703 +430
19/06/2020 (Filing RTI with MOHFW) 8927 +224
20/06/2020 (Transfer of RTI to NCDCD) 9265 (Highest) +338
21/06/2020 9127 -138
22/06/2020 7832 -1295
23/06/2020 8015 +183
24/06/2020 8141 +126
25/06/2020 (Acknowledgment of Receiving by NCDCD) 8493 +352
26/06/2020 8123 -370
27/06/2020 8023 -100
28/06/2020 7839 -184
29/06/2020 7285 -554
30/06/2020 7004 -281
01/07/2020 6915 -89
02/07/2020 6832 -83
03/07/2020 6031 -801
04/07/2020 4999 -1032
05/07/2020 4629 -370
06/07/2020 4913 +284
07/07/2020 5034 +121
08/07/2020 5018 -16
09/07/2020 4385 -633
10/07/2020 4161 -224
11/07/2020 3416 -745
12/07/2020 3024 -392
13/07/2020 2358 -666
14/07/2020 2179 -179
15/07/2020 1524 -655
16/07/2020 1285 -239
17/07/2020 (Partial reply by NCDCD and transfer of RTI to ICMR) 531 -754
18/07/2020 163 -368

We will publish an update once ICMR responds with more information.

Shikari Shambu Jr.