Washington State To Start Reporting All Negative Covid-19 Test Results For Better Picture Of Pandemic

Olympia, Wash. – The Washington Coronavirus Response Joint Information Center held a telebriefing news conference this afternoon to provide an update on the state’s ongoing response to COVID-19. Health officials announcing today they are changing how negative test results are reported. If someone tested negative multiple times, only their first negative test has been reported. Until now.  Since the pandemic is progressing and retesting is increasing, Dr. John Wiesman, Secretary of Health for Washington state says, now every time some tests negative it will be reported, and the new reporting will better reflect the current conditions in the state.  It will give officials a better idea of the actual number of tests being done and the percentage of those tests coming back positive. Dr. Wiesman says it will take about a week or so to get the new reporting system up to speed, and all the new data plugged in. But  he doesn’t expect the new information to change much. He says the general trends of the virus have stayed the same over recent weeks, and they’ve always had the raw data, it just wasn’t being reported.

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