DHS sat on over one hundred thousand negative test results
Oct. 20, 2020
After DHS’ weekend COVID data blackout ended, it was obvious the department had used the opportunity to catch up on entering an enormous backlog of negative test results.
This “correction” created a spike in test totals that render DHS’ data almost worthless in the short term.
Whereas the state was recording about 15,000 new people tested each day, from Saturday through Monday that jumped to an average of 40,000 new people a day. In total, there were 120,949 test results recorded during the three-day blackout, while only 93,315 test results were recorded during the previous seven days.
During that time, the number of new positive test results took an unexpected dip. Throughout the week before the blackout, Wisconsin was recording an average of 3,000 new COVID cases a day. Over the weekend blackout, that supposedly dropped to fewer than 2,000. On Monday, it was back up to 3,777.
While the total number of positive cases only increased by 7,707 since Friday, the number of negative results increased by 113,242. As MacIver previously reported, that number only reflects the number of people testing negative for the first time. The real number of negative test results is much, much higher.
However, even using DHS’ flawed positivity formula, the resulting change is astounding. On Friday, the daily positivity rate was 26.5%. On Monday, it fell to 9.3%. During Saturday and Sunday, it averaged out to 4.9%. Remember, though, that these results are directly tied to the unnatural effects of DHS’ data dump.
Going forward, there will be tell-tale signs whether DHS is falling back into old habits. If the number of new people tested falls back down to about 15,000 or fewer a day, it is a strong indication that DHS is once again sitting on negative test results. That will mean an inaccurate daily total and an inaccurate positivity rate.