Imperial County’s COVID-19 numbers flawed due to California data glitch
IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY), California’s CalREADIE system that logs coronavirus cases suffered a server outage causing a backlog in test results across the state including Imperial County.
Just as Imperial County was starting to see a decrease in coronavirus cases, it’s now uncertain what actual COVID-19 numbers look like in the valley.
According to California Governor Gavin Newsom, nearly 300,000 coronavirus lab results are now backlogged due to the system glitch.
“The CalREADIE system is that electronic recording system that we have all used in the state of California. Because of that the numbers that we have had are not correct and the state has actually frozen our dashboard," said Dr. Stephan Munday, ICPHD health officer.
Newsom said in a press conference Monday that the glitch happened over a period of at least seven days.
The state has been working to restore the system and increase the system’s capacity to better handle a record volume of data.
“We are committed in the long term to address these foundational data issues so we can improve our performance and most importantly our customer service to you," said Newsom.
As other counties continue to move forward in reopening business and schools, Imperial County remains in stage one.
According to the health department, the county cannot move forward until the system is restored to ensure an accurate count in our COVID-19 cases, however, the county health officer says improvements have been made with a decrease in cases and they’re already preparing a variance report to submit to the state to reopen businesses for when the county meets that mark.
“As soon as we meet the requirements we will be submitting that. We’re not quite there yet, we’re waiting for the numbers to get updated, but when we are we’re waiting to submit immediately," said Munday.
The county’s current 7 day testing percentage is at 11.3%. Although it’s unclear if that number is accurate, that number has to decrease to 8% in order to move forward with reopening.
According to governor Newsom the CalREADIE system should be restored by the end of this week.
