KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the state of Missouri ramps up its testing capacity, it’s also running into more hiccups receiving results from private labs, which might paint a more grim picture of the COVID-19 outbreak in the state than the reality health officials are seeing.
Official reports from state and county health departments showed an increase for four straight days in the number of cases and at least 10 new deaths every day this week in Missouri, but that may be misleading.
Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams cautioned against viewing the spike this week in new COVID-19 cases and deaths as an indication the state’s efforts to combat the virus’ spread weren’t working.
Instead, Williams blamed the climbing numbers this week on late reporting of test results processed at private labs.
Williams said one large commercial lab reported “a large bundle,” or about 10 days worth of cases, to the state at one time.
Another private testing entity failed to report the number of deaths to the state for nearly two weeks before providing an aggregate number.
“Why that national lab had the issue, they said it was technical issues, but our expectation is that all cases and all deaths are reported within 24 hours to us at the state,” Williams said.
Williams cautioned against using the day-to-day spikes or fluctuations to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state.
“If you’re just looking at it and don't understand the context, you might think, ‘Gosh, what happened yesterday,’” Williams said.
He said it was better to look at trends in the data, increases or decreases over a period of at least three to seven days.
