Ohio clearing data backlog as it faces unprecedented levels of COVID-19 cases, testing
Ohio reported "artificially high" COVID-19 case numbers Friday as the Ohio Department of Health clears a backlog in test results reported during this latest coronavirus surge.
An "unprecedented" number of cases is being reported each day, the agency said, and the state's system that processes test results was unable to keep up. Specifically, the 20-year-old Ohio Disease Reporting System reached its capacity to process test results submitted by labs.
The department expanded its capacity to process a larger volume of results late Thursday, helping to begin clear a backlog of "tens of thousands" of results. Numbers will continue to be high over the next several days, the department said.
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State hospitalization and case records have been broken multiple times over the past 30 days.
"As COVID-19 cases have reached all-time highs, driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant, the system reached its processing capacity, resulting in a multiple-day backlog of tens of thousands of results," the Ohio Department of Health said in a statement explaining the backlog.
The backlogged cases, when reported, will be attributed to the onset date of the illness. Onset date could be the first day someone had symptoms, the day a test was administered or the day results were reported.
Of the 41,455 cases added Friday, 17,240 had an onset date of Monday, according to a USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau analysis of state data.
