Bangladesh Statistics Update: continuing contradiction between WHO and government Covid-19 data

A couple of weeks ago, Netra news revealed that the Bangladesh government only had the district/division location of 57% of those who tested positive with the virus. This was stated in WHO’s weekly Situation Report of 15 June and we then confirmed this after adding up the number of cases apportioned to each district on the IEDCR website. It only had data on 52,830 out of 90,619 confirmed cases at the time.

The following week WHO Situation Report of June 22nd suddenly stated that it now had available 97% of the data (112,306 out of 115,786). However when we looked at the government’s IEDCR website, it was only publishing district data on 60% of the total cases (69,863 out of 115,786 — including Dhaka City data)

This week, WHO’s Situation Report of June 29th, says that it now has 100% of the data (141,801/141,801), but when we add up both the District Data (62,280, June 30th) and the Dhaka City Data (15,658, June 27th) on the IEDCR website, this only adds up 77,938. This is only 55% of the total.

So this is the situation: WHO now says it has 100% of the geographical location of all the country’s confirmed infections. The WHO receives its data from the government. The government is only publishing 55% of this data. Why?

In relation to ‘Age’ and ‘Gender’, something interesting is going on.

On June 15th, WHO said it only had 24% of the data of confirmed cases and 59% of death cases, and provided information on this available data

The next week, after Netra News highlighted the absence of data, WHO did not publish any information on age and gender.

This week, on June 29th, WHO does publish information on age and gender — but this time without saying what percentage of data it has been provided. It says only: “According to available data”!

So who knows what is happening there?