Coronavirus

Health Ministry (finally) requests all Covid-19 test data in Brazil

Health Ministry (finally) requests all Covid-19 test data in Brazil

On Tuesday, the federal government published a new measure requiring all Covid-19 test data to be reported to the Health Ministry — four months after the arrival of the coronavirus in Brazil. The guideline will apply to all public and private labs performing any kind of Covid-19 testing in Brazil.

The results of all tests must also be reported, even those that come back negative or inconclusive. Labs will have a 24-hour deadline following the release of official test results to report them to the Health Ministry. They will also have a 15-day transition period, effective immediately, to adapt themselves to the new National Health Data Network — a new system for sharing test data with the Health Ministry.

The decision by the federal government did not come as a surprise; in fact, the measure was expected much sooner, as the pandemic has now spread through Brazil for four months.

It remains to be seen how transparent the Health Ministry will be with this extra data from public and private labs across the country, as recent Covid-19 data coverups put the ministry’s data integrity into question.


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