Tweets Show NCOC Forging Covid-19 Data

Two tweets related to daily covid-19 data shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) raised questions if it is involved in forging numbers.

Islamabad-based journalist Omar Quraishi shared the screenshot of the data posted by NCOC official Twitter handle on April 24.

The death tally according to it was 173, which could have been the highest death toll in the country on a single day.

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The positive cases remained 7,152 with a whopping 13.80% positivity rate.

The tweet, shared at 4:37 am on April 24, was later deleted from the NCOC’s Twitter handle.

This was posted on the official NCOC Twitter handle and deleted soon – and the figures now are lower – tests are higher – deaths are lower – cases are lower – positivity rate is lower

Very fishy pic.twitter.com/tiVsBbLLrW

— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) April 24, 2021

Later after a break of almost two hours, NCOC shared covid-19 stats compiled from across the country on April 24, the same day.

The number of tests jumped to 52,402 from 45,818 in the deleted tweet. The deaths miraculously slumped to 157, 16 less than what was mentioned earlier.

Besides this, the positivity ratio magically dropped to 11.27%.

Statistics 24 April 21:
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 52,402
Positive Cases: 5908
Positivity % : 11.27%
Deaths : 157

— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) April 24, 2021

The removal of tweets sent alarm bells ringing and have given birth to a question if NCOC was forging covid-19 data.

The command center also didn’t post an apology or clarification about the removed tweet if it was just human error.

If either is the case, NCOC Chairman Asad Umar is required to look into the matter at the earliest.