FAYETTEVILLE — Several factors contributed to discrepancies in covid-19 data for Northwest Arkansas, the deputy chief science officer at the Arkansas Department of Health said.
The Health Department did a data cleanup nearly two weeks ago for the state. The information should now be mostly up to date, said Austin Porter, deputy chief science officer.
The department regularly updates its website with the number of covid-19 tests and cases in each county.
The total number of tests in Washington County was significantly underreported. Tests jumped from 31,808 on Aug. 14 to 55,142 tests on Friday. At the same time, tests in Benton County dropped from 62,059 on Aug. 14 to 56,573 on Friday.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday during his almost-daily news briefing part of the reason for the underreporting was one testing lab in Northwest Arkansas was sending in positive test results but not its negative test results.
“There were a few red flags,” Porter said Monday. “It’s quite rare that you would get 100% positive rate from one lab. Surely, you have some negatives.”
The department hasn’t yet identified the private lab. A spokeswoman said Wednesday the department is still addressing some cases from the lab.
The Health Department collects demographic data on each person it tests for covid-19, but doesn’t always get the information it needs from private labs, Porter said.
The data on the department’s website is supposed to reflect where people tested for the virus reside, not necessarily where they were tested. For example, Washington County residents are to be counted in the department’s Washington County data, even if they get tested in another county.
The department found some tests were reflected in counties where the tests were done, but the people tested didn’t live in that county. Porter said the data was updated last week to reflect that, which helps explain the drop in tests reported for Benton County. Porter said he didn’t know if any discrepancies could be tracked to mass testing events at poultry plants or events conducted elsewhere in Northwest Arkansas.
Porter said the department has told the private labs it needs to know what city and county people live in when they are tested, but it has been a challenge because private labs testing for covid-19 keep popping up.
He added some labs send information via fax, and Health Department staff members have to manually compile the information. The department could easier make sure data is accurate and up to date if all labs would collect demographic data and provide information to the department electronically, Porter said.
Alex Golden can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAalexgolden.