“Almost 350,000 more tests have been reported in [UK] Government data than people tested since the start of the pandemic…The Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England each confirmed the double-counting.”
May 21, 2020. “Tens of thousands of coronavirus tests have been double-counted, officials admit,” UK Telegraph, Mason Boycott-Owen, Paul Nuki, Global Health Security Editor, London
“Two samples taken from the same patient are being recorded as two separate tests in the Government’s official figures.”
“Tens of thousands of Covid-19 tests have been double-counted in the Government’s official tally, public health officials have admitted.
Diagnostic tests which involve taking saliva and nasal samples from the same patient are being counted as two tests, not one.
[Ed. note: “When did this start? And why did public health staff not speak out? Or were they instructed to shut up? And who was in charge of instructing health staff “to double count.” Will there be an inquiry?”]
(continuing): “This inflates the daily reported diagnostic test numbers by over 20 per cent,with that proportion being much higher earlier on in the crisis before home test kits were added to the daily totals.
Almost 350,000 more tests have been reported in Government data than people tested since the start of the pandemic.
The discrepancy is in large part explained by the practice of counting saliva and nasal samples for the same individual twice.
The test involves a swab from the mouth and nose as well as a sample of saliva. Although both of these are taken from the same patient, they are counted twice by the Government in its daily data.
Added: State of Virginia freely admits its new Covid-19 metrics policy will “allow” it to double and triple count the most meaningful, multi-trillion dollar, alleged “scientific” number: total new “positive” Covid-19 tests, beginning w/o May 4. With new policy, if Joe Smith happens to test positive four times on four different days for whatever reason, Virginia will count that as 4 different people and will add 4 people instead of one to its “new infections” tally. “A spokesman for Virginia’s COVID-19 Joint Information Command, confirmed that each positive case of the disease would be counted as a new case altogether. “If a person is tested on different days, those tests are counted as separate,“ he said. Pressed to clarify the policy, Macenka said that repeat positive cases “are counted as separate cases only if the tests occur on different days. If [a Virginia resident] tested Monday and Tuesday and both are positive, that’s two positives.“” Virginia’s governor says “the state will begin its first phase of re-opening only when state officials have logged 14 straight days of declining case numbers and hospitalizations."
May 4, 2020, “Virginia to begin double-counting multiple positive coronavirus cases,” JusttheNews, Daniel Payne
“The new policy may serve to sharply drive up case numbers, which may in turn significantly delay the re-opening of the state.”
“Virginia this week [w/o May 4] will begin counting multiple positive coronavirus tests in the same patient as new individual cases of the disease, a policy decision likely to significantly drive up reported case numbers in a state that has been relatively spared the worst of the pandemic so far.
The state government announced on Saturday a policy change to its coronavirus data metrics. Health officials will begin reporting “the number of unique people tested per day rather than the number of unique people who have been tested at any point during the response,” the new policy states.
“We know individual people, especially healthcare workers and those in high-risk settings, may be tested more than once over time. This new method of providing test data also allows us to provide the number of tests per day,” [“Allows” you? Why would you want to be “allowed” to falsify a sensational headline number that extends the imprisonment of Virginia’s population?] the policy continues, adding:
“We believe these data to be a better representation of SARS-CoV-2 testing in Virginia, and a better guide to the public and policy-makers as they assess availability.
At a press conference on Friday, State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver gave an example of a single patient being tested four times for COVID-19. “What we’re doing now is, we’re counting all four tests,” Oliver said. “That’s the difference.”
What was unclear from the new policy is whether or not each positive test result would be counted as a new case of coronavirus altogether rather than merely a new test. [Yes, per below]. The Virginia Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard displays the total number of cases in the state, the total number of tests performed, and the total number of “unique people tested” by state officials.
Reached via email on Monday morning, Joe Macenka, a spokesman for Virginia’s COVID-19 Joint Information Command, confirmed that each positive case of the disease would be counted as a new case altogether. “If a person is tested on different days, those tests are counted as separate,” he said.
Pressed to clarify the policy, Macenka said that repeat positive cases “are counted as separate cases only if the tests occur on different days. If [a Virginia resident] tested Monday and Tuesday and both are positive, that’s two positives.”
Re-opening of state tied to declining case numbers.
That policy may serve to sharply drive up case numbers, which may in turn significantly delay the re-opening of the state.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has stated that the state will begin its first phase of re-opening only when state officials have logged 14 straight days of declining case numbers and hospitalizations. The governor last week did allow elective surgeries in the state to resume, though the state’s stay-at-home order, which is set to last until June 10, is still in place.
Virginia has been hit relatively lightly by the coronavirus pandemic compared to many other states. According to Worldometers, it ranks 21st in the country for deaths per one million residents, and 20th for cases.
Last month [April] State Health Commissioner Oliver claimed that the initial “Phase One” of re-opening the state might take up to two years, though state officials quickly disavowed that estimate and said Oliver had misspoken."
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