WVU in the News: What’s behind differences in how W.Va.’s COVID-19 numbers are reported?
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, data has become a much bigger part of many people’s lives, centering around how the number of coronavirus cases is trending. Just as someone might check the stock market or sports box scores on a daily basis, many people are now checking the COVID-19 numbers to see how their community, the region and the state are faring, or to find out if their children will be going to school in-person or can participate in athletics.
In West Virginia, the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) began releasing twice-daily COVID-19 data in mid-March. Several months later, citing a desire to fall in line with what most others states were doing, the DHHR switched to releasing data once a day.
So how does all of this data make it to the DHHR, and just how reliable and up-to-date is it?
Diane Gross, a regional epidemiologist at the Monongalia County Health Department, offered reasons for the differences in county and state numbers.