Backlog Of COVID Tests At Miami-Dade Lab Results In Misleading Stats Wednesday
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A backlog of tests at a Miami-Dade lab has resulted in misleading coronavirus numbers on Wednesday.
According to the Florida Department of Health, Miami-based Niznik Lab Corp did a so-called "data dump," reporting all their positive tests from the last seven weeks at once.
The FDOH tweeted:
"Today, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) received a backlog of testing data from Niznik Lab Corp in Miami, dating back to June 23rd. The lab reported over 4,000 cases occurring over the past 7 weeks, but which had not been reported to DOH until today… Therefore, this backlog severely skews today's daily report for Miami-Dade & is not reflective of current trends. Once DOH was informed of this testing data backlog, we immediately reached out to Niznik Lab & we are investigating the matter, along with Miami-Dade leadership."
In a tweet, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said of those 4,000 cases, 2,941 were in Miami‐Dade County reflected in Wednesday's statistics.
For reference, Miami Dade saw a single-day increase in positive cases of about 1,160 on Monday. On Tuesday, it was an increase of about 1,500.
So it raised some red flags when Wednesday that jumped to 4,141. That accounted for almost half of the state's single-day increase.
"What everyone's been doing the last couple of weeks is working. Things are getting better," said Dr. Aileen Marty.
The infectious disease specialist said it's better to focus on hospitalization rates.
"We're starting to see fewer admissions to hospitals which is a better indicator of what's going on. For example, today we had a total of 100 new patients admitted to hospital and we released 190. That's a good trend," she said.
Niznik CEO Humberto Buniotto issued a statement, which read, in part:
"There has been data integration issues that both parties have worked on and have been resolved which led to the reporting of all positive tests from June 23 to August 5 at one time."
Buniotto went on to say they're committed to cooperating with the Department of Health on testing matters.
The Department of Health also pointed out everyone tested by Niznik Lab Corp has received their results and have continuously been receiving results over the past seven weeks. The backlog of testing data from Niznik Lab Corp is a reporting issue that has been corrected.
