New metric, method updates for COVID-19 dashboards tracking statewide progress
Aug 26, 2020, 7:01 AM | Updated: Oct 7, 2024, 8:43 am
Nurses wearing protective clothing handle a bag with a potentially infected coronavirus swab at a drive-through testing center at the University of Washington Medical campus on March 13, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
The Washington State Department of Health is making additional changes to its COVID-19 dashboards. This new update will change the way the team processes and reports testing data statewide in an effort to account for the full volume of tests being done and better benchmark the state’s progress.
The changes were set to take effect Tuesday, Aug. 25, in three categories:
Total tests
The DOH data dashboard and risk assessment dashboard will now report on the total number of tests, instead of the total individuals tested. This marks a change from the old approach, which only counted one test per person, even if they were tested more than once. Now, every test is counted.
Washington Department of Health changes test reporting for COVID-19
The DOH expects this change will improve the state’s understanding of the testing situation as it will fully reflect the actual volume of tests being conducted. This change also puts Washington state’s reporting more in line with other states’ methodologies, as well as the CDC.
Percent positive
The percent of total tests that are positive will be based on the percentage of tests that are positive, changing from being based on the percentage of unique individuals who test positive. This will change the data, DOH warns, but they anticipate the percent positive to decrease as the reporting is now accounting for total tests. The dashboard visualizations will stay the same.
Daily testing rate
This rate will be a new metric added to the risk assessment dashboard to help the state understand the per capita testing levels both statewide and by county. It will allow for easy comparisons between counties and other locations, allowing the state to, again, better benchmark our progress.
The daily testing rate is calculated by dividing the average number of molecular tests performed over the past week by the population in the county or state, and then multiplying by 100,000. The DOH says there will not be any targets included at this time, but that could change. The daily testing rate will replace “Individuals tested per new case” on the risk assessment dashboard, which was an additional way of expressing the percent positive.
