An investigation into a state-issued daily coronavirus testing report in Florida shows possible errors in positivity rates, with two hospitals confirming the data are inaccurate.
The investigation into data from the Florida Department of Health, conducted by Fox 35 News, showed labs reporting a 100% positivity rate in testing, meaning that every single person who was tested was positive for the coronavirus. Several other labs had high positivity rates upward of 80%.
One hospital, Orlando Health, responded to the investigation and confirmed that the report is inaccurate, saying that its positivity rate was 9.4% and not 98% as the report stated.
Another hospital, Orlando Veteran’s Medical Center, is listed in the report with a positivity rate of 76%, but the hospital says the actual number was 6%.
The investigation’s results come a week after a physician in Bay County, Florida, questioned the belief that the positivity rate in the county was at almost 22%.
“We’ve got what’s called a denominator problem — the denominator is the number of negative cases, or negative tests, or total tests, and the numerator is positive tests,” Dr. Jon Ward told WJHG after analyzing the reported positive and negative tests. “I looked at it, and [PanCare] showed 280 positives and zero negatives, and that just came up really fishy because I knew a lot of people who had gone to PanCare and tested negative,” said Ward.
The Florida Department of Health announced 12,624 new positive cases, but coronavirus deaths in the states have continued to “drop and drop and drop,” according to Dr. Charles Lockwood, who appeared on CNN to discuss the situation in Florida. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has faced criticism from the Left over the uptick in positive cases, shared the interview on his Twitter account.
Great context from Dr. Charles Lockwood, Senior Vice President of @USFHealth pic.twitter.com/nHLzDemwqV
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 13, 2020
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to cite Panama City, Florida’s WJHG.
