Arizona reports low coronavirus cases due to data problem

Directly affects Arizona Department of Health Services

PHOENIX, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY/AP) - Arizona reported far fewer additional COVID-19 cases than normal Tuesday morning, as state officials cited a data-processing problem.

The Arizona Department of Health Service (ADHS) confirms the problem has been fixed and that the state’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday will report numbers much higher than they’d normally be.

"We take pride in the accuracy of the data we’ve provided each day during the pandemic. Occasionally because of the nature of real-time data reporting, circumstances mean the additions can be higher or lower than expected," expresses ADHS Communications Director Steve Elliot.

The state’s seven-day daily rolling average of new cases was 3,198 as of Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Elliot adds, "Our staff has corrected this problem, and you should expect tomorrow’s additions to be much higher than they’d ordinarily be."

Department officials say the same processing error affected reporting of COVID-19 deaths, resulting in a one-death subtraction.

"The daily updates on the Summary page of our dashboard add cases reported to ADHS yesterday that occurred mainly on previous days rather than being confirmed and probable cases that occurred yesterday," says Elliot.