From the BBC website. Does anyboby know how they count numbers in the US and does it vary from state to state?
About CDC COVID-19 Data
Updated July 13, 2020
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Syndicate
On This Page
Summary
Accuracy of Data
Confirmed & Probable Counts
Number of Jurisdictions Reporting
Summary
CDC reports COVID-19 case counts, deaths, and laboratory testing numbers daily online. Data on the COVID-19 website and CDC’s COVID Data Tracker are based on the most recent numbers reported by states, territories, and other jurisdictions. Data are dependent on jurisdictions’ timely and accurate reporting.
In addition, CDC regularly reports provisional death certificate data on the NCHS website. Reporting the number of deaths by using death certificates ultimately provides more complete information but is a longer process and, therefore, these numbers will be less than the deaths count on the COVID-19 website.
Accuracy of Data
CDC tracks COVID-19 illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths to monitor trends, detect where outbreaks are occurring, and determine whether public health measures are working. However, counting exact numbers of COVID-19 cases is not possible because COVID-19 can cause mild illness, symptoms might not appear immediately, there are delays in reporting and testing, not everyone who is infected gets tested or seeks medical care, and there are differences in how completely states and territories report their cases.
COVID-19 is one of about 120 diseases or conditions health departments voluntarily report to CDC. State, local, and territorial public health departments verify and report cases to CDC. When there are differences between numbers of cases reported by CDC versus by health departments, data reported by health departments should be considered the most up to date. Health departments may update case data over time when they receive more complete and accurate information. The number of new cases reported each day fluctuates. There is generally less reporting on the weekends and holidays.
CDC reports death data on three sections of the website: U.S. Cases & Deaths, COVID Data Tracker, and NCHS Provisional Death Counts. U.S. Cases and COVID Data Tracker get their information from the same source (total case counts); however, NCHS Death Counts are based on death certificates that use information reported by physicians, medical examiners, or coroners in the cause-of-death section of each certificate. Data from each of these pages are considered provisional (not complete and pending verification) and are therefore subject to change. Counts from previous weeks are continually revised as more records are received and processed. Because not all jurisdictions report counts daily, counts may increase at different intervals.
As of April 14, 2020, CDC case counts and death counts include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths. This change was made to reflect an interim COVID-19 position statementpdf iconexternal icon issued by the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists on April 5, 2020. The position statement included a case definition and made COVID-19 a nationally notifiable disease. Nationally notifiable disease cases are voluntarily reported to CDC by jurisdictions.
A confirmed case or death is defined by meeting confirmatory laboratory evidence for COVID-19.
A probable case or death is defined by one of the following:
Meeting clinical criteria AND epidemiologic evidence with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID-19
Meeting presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence
Meeting vital records criteria with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID19
Not all jurisdictions report probable cases and deaths to CDC. When not available to CDC, it is noted as N/A. Please note that jurisdictions may reclassify probable cases at any time to confirmed cases (if confirmatory laboratory evidence is obtained) or withdraw probable case reports entirely if further public health investigation determines that the individual most likely did not have COVID-19. As a result, probable case counts can fluctuate substantially. A jurisdiction might even report a negative number of probable cases on a given day, if more probable cases were disproven than were initially reported on that day.
Number of Jurisdictions Reporting
There are currently 60 U.S.-affiliated jurisdictions reporting cases of COVID-19. This includes the 50 states; the District of Columbia; New York City, the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S Virgin Islands; and three independent countries in compacts of free association with the United States (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau).
New York State’s reported case and death counts do not include New York City’s counts as they separately report nationally notifiable conditions to CDC.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/about-us-cases-deaths.html
*****
Here's how to check every state:
https://www.shvs.org/state-covid-19-data-dashboards/
and
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases
*****
Testing data is gathered from individual states, as reported in state health department websites, data dashboards and press releases from officials.
As of 26 May 2020, there have been a number of media reports noting that the testing figures released by some states include antibody tests in addition to PCR tests – as discussed in this article in The Atlantic.
Our dataset aims to report only PCR tests. But because some states do not disaggregate these types of tests we are not currently able to exclude the antibody tests.
Other differences across states include: some report the number of tests performed, others the number of people tested; some include private labs, others not; some report negative test results, others only positive test results; some include pending tests, others do not (below we show figures that exclude explicitly pending results).
Moreover, many states do not explicitly provide details about these important factors needed to interpret the data they provide.
There are issues in comparing the figures over time. The totals given for early on in the outbreak do not include all states. One significant uncertainty is the extent to which the rapid rise in tests seen from the mid-March in part reflects states beginning to report private lab tests.
Overall the figures should be seen as
providing a general indication of testing output, r
ather than a specific count of a given indicator. Given the very incomplete coverage and reporting delays of the CDC data, it provides a very important additional perspective.
The Project documents their work in lots of detail. See the link provided above for full details.
The United States testing data includes non-PCR tests, which reduces its comparability with other countries.
ALSO...
Detailed description:
Since August 2020, our principal time series for the United States is based on the CSV file made available by the Department of Health & Human Services on HealthData.gov.
It “includes viral COVID-19 laboratory test (PCR) results from over 1,000 U.S. laboratories and testing locations including commercial and reference laboratories, public health laboratories, hospital laboratories, and other testing locations.”
The source notes that
“data presented here is representative of diagnostic specimens being tested – not individual people (…). Data presented might not represent the most current counts for the most recent 3 days due to the time it takes to report testing information. The data may also not include results from all potential testing sites within the jurisdiction (e.g., non-laboratory or point of care test sites) and therefore reflect the majority, but not all, of COVID-19 testing being conducted in the United States.”
It is also explained in the description that the data “excludes serology tests where possible”, which may indicate that not 100% of the tests included in the time series are PCR tests.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing#united-states
*****
"data presented here is representative of diagnostic specimens being tested – not individual people (…)"
^ This is abominable! We're counting specimens, not individuals. So, if 10 people test positive, but one of them has had 7 tests, it's reported in the fake news as 17 cases!!!!!
The big takeaway for me? Could we
POSSIBLY have been more vague all these months in reporting factual stats"??????? No. It's been a mess!