Last week, Virginia's Department of Health released a backlog of tens of thousands of COVID-19 test results. This week, it provided more race and ethnicity data.
Trying to communicate state data on the disease to the public every day is a formidable task.
To better understand recent data dumps, tweaks and changes the state is managing, Pamela D'Angelo talked with the woman behind the numbers.
Governor Northam announced the latest COVID-19 data tweak during his Tuesday press conference.
Emily Stephens is the respiratory disease coordinator at the Department of Health who now leads the team that gathers and checks the latest state numbers for COVID-19. She hit the ground running when the U.S. had its first case in January, the middle of flu season. Now, she's responsible for improving daily data, including the latest demographic breakdown. "My role in the current sphere is to take what exists in those databases and make sure it is clean and accurately portrayed to the public," she explains.
That means vetting thousands of documents each week making sure they've collected all the information that describes the case such as race, ethnicity and location. "It can be difficult to keep up with what we're providing. There are definitely gaps in that descriptive aspect."
Most of the data comes directly through an electronic portal but some arrives by fax and has to be entered by hand. Other data comes in formats that have to be checked for compatibility and missing information. "Ideally, we get all of it but that's definitely not occurring. I know we've talked ad nauseam in the public sphere about how much of our race and ethnicity data are missing. In some cases we are missing patient's address, which can be a real issue."
And try contacting someone by phone in the age of robocalls. "I don't know about you, but for the most part, I screen numbers that I don't know," Stephens admits. "And if somebody leaves a message I'll call them back, but I don't necessarily pick up my phone when there's an unknown number calling."
The very process of making sure data is accurate also takes time. For example, death certificates, which can take up to a week to be processed, will have to be checked by VDH for COVID-19 and the virus that causes the disease. "Once we have that information identified then it takes time for the people here within Central Office to make sure 'no, this person doesn't exist yet in our disease surveillance system, let me go ahead and enter them into that system.'"
VDH is in the early stages of how to define a person has recovered from COVID-19 and how to report those cases. "We are working through how we consider a case to be recovered and then how fast we can report that information."
As VDH learns more about COVID-19 and about its own data, it will be communicated to the public on the health department's website. "Everything that we're pushing out is in this constant state of enhancement. So were consistently looking at the data and figuring out 'what is the best way for me to present this?' And sometimes the best way today is different from the best way yesterday was."
To gather more accurate data, the VDH is hiring 70 district data managers and five regional analytic coordinators. So, in the months ahead, with more tweaks to come, Virginians will have access to even more details about the pandemic here.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.