State health officials recorded 502 COVID deaths Tuesday, bringing the death toll in Ohio since the beginning of the pandemic to 32,489. Hospitals reported 565 new admissions, 45 to intensive care units. But the number most Ohioans look to first - the daily case count - was incomplete.
The state’s COVID dashboard shows fewer than 5,000 positive COVID cases in Ohio Tuesday. The Ohio Dept of Health says those numbers are an undercount. But those numbers have been incorrect before.
The counts were also off after the holidays, when the virus appeared to causing record case numbers. Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said last week it’s hard to keep up with so many cases being reported.
“What we did was work very aggressively to augment those systems and do some rapid, both human and technological efforts, in new ways.”
ODH says this time, invalid data was received because of an electronic lab processing error and no lab results had been processed since 5 p.m. Monday. Case counts have always been thought to be underreported anyway because many positive rapid home tests are not reported and counted in the totals.