Several US states have scaled back their reporting of COVID-19
cases just as the country is witnessing a surge, according to US media reports. Experts say this scale back is depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks,
cases, hospitalisations, and deaths in their communities.

Florida, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota have shifted to
weekly reporting of cases instead of daily reporting during a pandemic in which
coronavirus dashboards have become a staple for Americans closely tracking case
counts in a crisis that has killed more than 600,000 people in the US.

The state of Nebraska had stopped reporting the cases altogether
for two weeks after Governor Pete Ricketts ended the official virus emergency.
Public records requests from news reporters forced the state to backtrack two
weeks later when it came up with a weekly site to track numbers

Earlier this month, Florida officials had defended the
change in frequency of reporting of cases, saying it made sense given the decreasing number of cases and the increasing number of people being
vaccinated. Florida now makes up one-fifth of the country’s new coronavirus
infections according to statistics from earlier this week.

According to the last two weekly reports, new cases in Florida shot
up from 23,000 to 45,000 and then 73,000 on Friday, an average of more than
10,000 day. Hospitals are starting to run out of space in parts of the state,
the Associated Press reported.

“There was absolutely no reason to eliminate the daily
updates beyond an effort to pretend like there are no updates,” AP quoted
Democrat state Representative Anna Eskamani as saying.

The trend of reducing data reporting has alarmed infectious
disease specialists who believe that more information is better during a pandemic.
People have come to rely on state virus dashboards to help make decisions about
whether to attend large gatherings or wear masks in public, and understanding
the level of risk in the community affects how people respond to the virus
restrictions and calls to get vaccinated.