BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The state has been experiencing a technical issue causing a lag in COVID-19 case reporting, but they are working to solve the problem according to Kern County Public Health.
“We’re hopeful this technical issue will be resolved quickly so we can continue our fight to protect our county residents,” Public Health Director Matt Constantine said.
Public health said here is currently a technical issue with the California Department of Public Health’s electronic disease reporting system and the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange is experiencing delays.
Electronic laboratory reporting is not being submitted to CalREDIE’s system in a real-time manner. Therefore the State has not completely reported all of Kern County’s cases.
“It remains critical that residents continue to practice healthy habits that include physical distancing, hand-washing and wearing face coverings when in public,” says Matt Constantine, Director of Kern County Public Health Services Department. “We must use all the preventative measures available to combat this disease.”
CDPH informed public health departments of the technical issues in an e-mail on Friday (Aug. 1). Yesterday, CDPH stated they are committed to resolving the issue as quickly as possible and has “urgently escalated this issue to leadership.”
The delay impacts how public health workers can identify cases for investigation, contact tracing and, ultimately, controlling the disease. The county’s testing positivity rate and case rate is also impacted by the delay.
Hospitalization and death rates are not impacted as they are reported directly to the county through different systems.
