California Health Department reveals underreporting of COVID-19 cases

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“We don’t know if there was some fix between the 15th and the 25th. We don’t know what went on before that,” said Jeff Smith, the county executive for Santa Clara, as quoted by the local media organization. “It’s basically a black box at this point.”

The Santa Clara County COVID-19 data portal posted a disclaimer that reads:

“Due to a significant and unresolved problem with the State of California’s reporting system for communicable diseases (California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE)), the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, as well as county public health departments statewide, are experiencing significant underreporting of COVID-19 testing results. The State has informed us that counties have received incomplete information regarding test results, which affects our ability to identify new cases of COVID-19, to accurately report the testing positivity rate in our community, and to identify the number of persons tested for the last few weeks. Without timely reports of all new lab results, it is impossible for State and local health officials to identify the extent to which COVID-19 is circulating in the community. It also hinders our ability to conduct effective contact tracing and case investigations to slow the spread of COVID-19.