On the heels of Governor Newsom’s
recent statement that the state’s positive case rate
was declining slightly, the California Department of Public
Health (CDPH) announced
this week that the state data is likely underreported due to
a serious technological glitch.
The state was first alerted to possible discrepancies in the case
reporting data by counties late last week and formally
acknowledged it today. The “reporting discrepancies” have
impacted the number of cases reported both statewide and in
individual counties, hampering county contact tracing and other
local public health efforts.
The good news is this glitch appears to be impacting only case
reporting data, not hospitalization and ICU data. The bad news is
the state does not know how long this case reporting discrepancy
has been in effect – or when it will be fixed.
The state has deployed a team from the Department of Technology
to assess the underlying code and is working with county public
health departments and laboratories to obtain manual reporting of
this critical piece of daily data. CSAC will continue to work
with local health departments, CDPH, and the Newsom
Administration to ensure accurate and timely case data for all
counties.
Without real-time data on positive cases, local health
departments are truly flying blind during this pandemic in the
Golden State.
