As Fresno County coronavirus cases surge, officials cut back on public updates
As the number of coronavirus infections grows in Fresno County, residents will see fewer updates per week on the infection rates.
Dr. Stephanie Koch-Kumar, a senior epidemiologist with the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said the county is transitioning into a new reporting strategy they say allows COVID-19 investigators to better analyze the information gathered from infected people. The approach from the health department was previously geared toward coronavirus cases involving travel.
But amid higher numbers and as the virus has settled in the community through close-contact spreading, Koch-Kumar said the county is rethinking how it conducts the investigations.
The change comes as cases surge in Fresno County and local hospitals are nearly full. On Wednesday, the county reported 8,756 positive COVID-19 cases. Of those, 6,482 cases are still active and under investigation, while 2,183 are considered recovered patients.
So far, 91 people in Fresno County have died in connection with the virus.
The county’s health department previously shared daily updates from the infections, but the surge has complicated the reporting method and the accuracy of information from the cases, health officials said. Case numbers will now be reported on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said he prefers to have more infrequent updates with better-analyzed information than daily information that has not been filtered to reflect the situation better.
“If I have to choose between getting accurate information a couple of times a week or inaccurate information every day, then I’m going to choose to get accurate information a couple of times a week. Unfortunately, that is the choice that we have at this time,” Vohra said.
Saving time
Koch-Kumar said the new strategy would help save the health department staff some time when it comes to reaching infected residents for information and the county’s dashboard will show clearer daily information.
She said the county is using a database to gather the information through an automatic survey. That helps staff focus on analyzing data as it comes in, while other staff can perform different tasks like entering information, contact tracing, and seeking out plasma donors.
“It’s not just that we can shift resources into one thing,” Koch-Kumar said. “We’re always trying to balance to see what can we provide to this team without taking away from all the other important tasks that are required.”
There have been some discrepancies with the local and statewide databases, Koch-Kumar said, which the health staff is attempting to correct as they catch up with the number of cases and information.
For example, county staff tries to clear any duplicate cases and any cases that may belong to another county to match data with the state. Health officials did not immediately provide information about how much of a problem duplicate information has been.
The California Department of Public Health updates its information by mid-afternoon each day. According to the department, counties report their cases to a statewide data system, then the department confirms that the cases meet the CDC definition for infection. The state then releases its figures in 24 hours, once the cases are verified.
Koch-Kumar said the different systems and times for updating the systems can cause delays in up-to-date information for daily updates.
Koch-Kumar also said that there are delays in information since COVID-19 figures are usually from a day before. All testing labs are required to be reporting case numbers, but not all of them are reporting the same way or as fast as others. Koch-Kumar said some data is entered automatically while other is entered manually.
Reaching out to all those cases takes a lot of time and work,” Koch-Kumar said. “We keep adding, but the numbers keep going up, so even when we’re adding we’re still behind. We are trying to catch up.”
Does this affect reopening?
The evolving reporting strategy from increased testing and infections is a work in progress. But Vohra said the information provided by counties is still helpful to the state, and there is “a lot of concordance” between the data.
“When it comes time to decide to reopen, I think that both sets of numbers are going to have to reflect that things are looking better than they are now and that our surge is under control,” Vohra said.
He added that there are still other factors, like whether hospitals can sustain the capacity of patients. As of Wednesday, there were 212 people hospitalized in Fresno County with the virus.
Fresno County spokesman Jordan Scott said the county’s priority is to get off the state’s watchlist and get businesses opened up again.
“But we want to make sure we’re doing it in the safest manner possible,” Scott said.
Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said having the county’s information be replicable at the state level is essential for decision-making.
“A one-percent change is significant,” Magsig said. “We don’t want to haphazardly be reporting numbers that aren’t as complete as possible.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 10:32 AM.
