LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In many instances across Kentucky, the state is reporting different county-wide COVID-19 statistics than local health departments.
For example, at one point, the Lincoln Trail District Health Department's COVID-19 dashboard listed 3,944 cases in Hardin County, while the state reported 4,197. But several other counties have experienced the opposite, where the local health department reported more cases than the state had listed on its dashboard.
It's an issue that's been discussed since the pandemic hit Kentucky, and it's still happening in many counties.
Health professionals at the North Central District Health Department said it has a lot to do with how the results are submitted.
"The local health departments are receiving test results from multiple sources," Dr. Stephanie Lockits said. "So, not just from the state’s system but also from individual doctor’s offices, from individual testing at health department clinics, multiple places."
The state gets its data from an information databased named the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). Labs are encouraged to submit results using this resource.
However, not all labs are doing that.
Because some have yet to start using NEDDS as a way to report results, it's causing a lag in reporting that reflects more local cases than the state is reporting.
“Those test results sometimes come to the local health departments and get reported before they’re uploaded and hit the state’s system," Lockits said.
Opposite from that, in a situation where there is a dump of results at one time, the state may process them faster than the local health department.
“If there’s been a large upload of cases, from one of the lab systems or something like that, the local health department may not have gotten those pulled off yet," Lockits said. "It’s all about the systems we’re using."
Some health departments have completely abandoned the dashboards that show their county or district's current COVID-19 status. The Lincoln Trail District Health Department took its dashboard down Monday and referred people to the state's data.
"Due to the lag time in reporting and the current strain on public health resources, we can no longer maintain the Lincoln Trail District Health Department dashboard," the district website read Monday. "Please visit the kycovid.19.ky.gov website for county specific information."
Some health departments, like North Central District, only report cases three times a week and update the web dashboard by weekly cases.
It helps cut down on discrepancies.
Health officials encourage the public to not get too invested in individual numbers. While there will continue to be differences between the local and state numbers, they said to pay more attention to the incidence rate.
“There may be a little discrepancy (in total cases), but most of the time, over a short period of time, those are going to shore up a bit," Lockits said. "Pay attention to that incidence rate and that red map.”
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