In this Saturday’s bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), in which 288 more cases of covid-19 are attributed to Madeira, the national health authority presents an explanation for the discrepancy in numbers in relation to those presented by the Regional Health Directorate .
“From the data presented in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, 81% of the cases had a period between diagnosis and notification of more than 48 hours, due to computer complications in a laboratory in the region and which are in the process of regularization”, reads in document that updates the epidemiological situation in Portugal.
An explanation that does not coincide with the one presented this Friday by the regional health authorities, which accused the DGS of disclosing numbers “which generate disinformation among the population” and also “harmful to the dynamics of the tourism sector in the Region”.
“The reliable numbers are the data reported daily by the Regional Health Directorate, in a clear, safe and transparent way. The data reported by the DGS have as source of information national electronic platforms, SINAVE, which have presented anomalies that result in delays in notifications and cross-checking of information “, said the same note sent yesterday to the newsrooms by the Regional Health Secretariat.
It should also be remembered that the director-general of Health, Graça Freitas, told JM, in Thursday’s edition, that it is normal “to have discrepancies”. In any case, he does not consider them to be “serious” and points out “that later they are correct”. “There will be cases that the autonomous region knows early, but that were not registered in the system, but these are minor discrepancies; there will be others in which the addresses do not exactly match the official address, and this has undergone adjustments in terms of the true location to which the case must be imputed, “added the official.