There have been times of confusion in the Department of Health on 14 and 15 May, and no one has yet made clear what has happened. On the one hand, the Basque Government has changed the way data on coronavirus incidence are provided; on the other hand, some media have reported incidents involving data updates within the department. Nekane Murga acknowledged on Thursday that the team has been renovated and thanked all those who have worked so far on this work, but without giving more details.

The data adaptation took place last Thursday, 14 May. The Basque Government radically modified the data tables and stopped providing some data that it had previously provided, such as data by localities and health areas. Last Friday, 15 May, a new data collection system was launched. He now delivers two documents, one with epidemiological data — the same report as before, but with less data or changes — and the other with the analysis of the care situation.

This epidemiological report shows the number of deaths in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa by coronavirus to date: 1.455 – four more between Friday and Saturday; therefore, now 1.459 – But in the whole report there are no shooters to follow those dead. They are not broken down day by day, nor country by country, which they have so far given.

To access this series of data, we have to go to the care report. But in that report, the Department of Health has begun to collect only the data from the hospitals they are performing. In other words, there are no series of data on deaths in nursing homes or private hospitals. And there is the problem of a comprehensive follow-up of coronavirus deaths: the Basque Government is breaking down only the death toll in hospitals, where 868 people have died. That is, the data series of nearly 600 deaths have disappeared from the reports — although the total number does appear in the epidemiological report, now it is not known when and in which country those deaths have occurred.

The unclear question is whether or not the Department of Health, as of May 14, is updating the death toll outside public hospitals in the number of deaths.

Hospitalized data

Other series of data have also seen the change of the Basque Government on 14 May. So far, he has explained the number of patients in all hospitals every day, but, after the change of May 14, that data series has also disappeared, which no longer appears in the epidemiological report, and now only shows the number of patients who have been in public hospitals, which is found in the care report.

This has led to significant changes in the data series: from the beginning of April, the new Government data series clearly shows fewer patients than the total number of patients hospitalized in all hospitals.

The Basque Government has also made changes in the data provided so far by municipalities and health areas of the Basque Autonomous Community. Until 14 May it has provided only one data: how many positive cases have been detected in each village and health area. Since Thursday, the Basque Government has begun to give new detected cases, without reaching the total figure.

Petitions in Madrid

Although it is not possible to clarify what has happened within the Department of Health, there is one factor that has caused this change: To move on to the first phase of deescalation defined by the Government of Spain, it is necessary to follow clearly the evolution of the pandemic and the current situation. This implies defining a set of indicators to be used as indicators and how to measure them.

They have also had to update the data deadline. So far, the Basque Government has released the data collected until 20:00 p.m. on the eve. Now, at the request of Madrid, you have had to update your data to determine how many cases there have been every day, between 00:00 and 00:00. This has required the Department of Health to update all data sets.

The Basque Government has made the necessary changes to respond to this demand, and the creation of a welfare report follows. The Department of Health has obviously made changes to determine the situation of public health facilities, such as beds and intensive care units, on a daily basis. But it has left out of these statistics, at least for the time being, other health services and the monitoring of medicalized areas. And it has so far removed other series of data useful for monitoring the evolution of the pandemic, such as the daily evolution of all deaths, which can now only be followed by the death toll in hospitals. It remains to be seen whether further changes will be made in the coming days.

Tailored to the Government's criteria

In any case, this statistical change is logical if we take into account the arguments put forward by the Basque Government to the Spanish Ministry of Health. The demand for the treatment of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa as a single unit has led to the disappearance of some data groups, such as the Basque Government, which in the last ten days has stopped issuing the R0 indicator by provinces. And the Government, moreover, has based the strongest argument of moving to this stage on the capacity and strength of its public health system, and thus can be understood as the main indicator of monitoring the pandemic the taking of data on the situation of the health system.

The report, presented ten days ago by the Department of Health to Madrid, also included this point. The Basque Government has as its main indicator the state of the public system for containing the pandemic and, for example, has not placed so much emphasis on plans and resources for detecting new cases, testing them, detecting contacts and isolating them. In that report, the plans and resources of the Basque Government in this area were carefully reflected, and once the data were modified, these indicators have not been included.

It should be checked whether these data are sufficient by the Ministry of Health. It should be noted that about a month ago the Government of Navarre had to adapt its statistics, as the data on deaths in households were not included in its public data. It is therefore to be hoped that the Government will make further changes in the way in which data will be provided later.