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Missouri changes reporting of COVID-19 testing data and positivity rate
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Saturday that it is changing how COVID-19 testing data is reported and how positivity rates are calculated.
In a release, Dr. Randall Williams, director of DHSS said, “As we continue to learn more about this virus and new tests emerge, we will continue providing better data with greater clarity and transparency to help Missourians make the best decisions for their health care possible.”
The release said that while DHSS staff have "been following reporting guidelines as requested from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both retrospectively and going forward, Missouri is segregating different testing data types to provide the best available information to citizens. These are reflected in the current dashboard.
The release outlined the following changes in the data:
A change in the percent positivity rate. The percent positivity rate was previously calculated as the number of positive COVID-19 cases divided by the total number of tests completed. The new calculation is the number of positive cases divided by the number of people tested (not the number of tests done). These changes will increase the rate of positive cases as reported through the dashboard. This is because each positive individual may have multiple tests done, increasing the size of the denominator (the number of tests) but not the numerator (number of confirmed COVID-19 cases). The previously-reported rate cannot be compared to the current rate.
The tests performed by day will include PCR tests only, which indicates only if a person has an active COVID-19 case. Numbers will have decreased from previous days’ reporting because DHSS is no longer including people who received only serology tests in this graph.
Given the marked increase in serology testing, DHSS is now reporting separate information on serology which is collected through a blood test to determine if a person has previously been infected and has formed antibodies against the virus.
In a statement sent to KMBC 9, Dr. Williams commented on the change in data reporting, saying, “As a 30-year clinician, and like many fellow clinicians nationally, I was very concerned that the CDC had specifically advised our staff and those among other states to combine these results. I believe that the CDC clearly knows these represent two very distinct clinical entities. I understand our team did what the CDC required them to do and did not maintain one set of data for the CDC and one set for public reporting. Until very recently, about the second week of May, the number of serological tests coming in was small enough that it did not substantially or noticeably impact our numbers. Upon me and our leadership as well as those from our state public health laboratory discovering the combined data set, we immediately corrected the way we report this information to the public and will continue to report it this way, as our leadership originally intended.”
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