COLUMBUS – Ohio’s reported cases of COVID-19 are artificially high due to a lag in processing test results, a result of the surge in new cases caused by the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.
Ohio Department of Health officials say the processing system was upgraded late Thursday to expand the state’s capacity to process a higher volume of lab results, enabling the backlog to begin to clear and to better keep up with daily processing of positive test results.
Testing data from laboratories across the state is automatically submitted to the department through an electronic lab reporting system, but as COVID-19 cases have reached all-time highs, the system reached its capacity, resulting in a multiple-day backlog of tens of thousands of results.
In addition, there are some positive test results that involve a further manual review by state epidemiologists.
Officials say the most helpful indicators of COVID-19 spread in Ohio continue to be hospitalizations, test positivity, case rates per 100,000 residents.
The state on Saturday reported 50,299 confirmed and probable cases, more than double the 21-day average, but only 345 new hospitalizations.
The statewide positivity rate was 31.1% and there were an average of 1,883.8 cases per 100,000 population over the past two weeks.
Throughout the pandemic, state officials say its antiquated technical systems have been strained by the impacts of high user demand.
The health department continues to take steps to enhance real-time data analysis, officials say.