Missouri’s health department reviewing duplicated COVID-19 test results

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Department of Health and Senior Services said Saturday it is reviewing for potentially duplicated COVID-19 test results, that could impact past positivity rates.

in a news release sent Saturday, DHSS said it identified some difficulties with it's new online reporting system that created numerous additional records. Staff will now have to manually review and match of records.

The department says a large proportion of these negative test records are redundant, with the exception of up to 8 positive test records that had been incorrectly processed.

Leaders say this could have an impact of possibly overstating the Missouri COVID-19 positivity rate. A review of the maximum possible impact of these potential data changes resulted in a 7-day average positivity rate that decreased by less than 1% at any given time.

We will continue working to review and adjust our historical data, and refining our electronic case reporting systems but believe that transparency is fundamentally important to providing accurate and clear data for Missourians,” Director of the Division of Community and Public Health Adam Crumbliss said.

The department say that 95 percent of tests are now reported electronically, which has sped up the process.