DHEC data shows frightening positive results

SC officials failed to report negative test results

Posted 8/29/20

By Jerry Bellune

JerryBellue@yahoo.com

SC health officials have not reported tens of thousands of negative corona virus test results.

WYFF-TV in Greenville discovered this oversight or …

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DHEC data shows frightening positive results

SC officials failed to report negative test results

Posted

By Jerry Bellune

JerryBellue@yahoo.com

SC health officials have not reported tens of thousands of negative corona virus test results.

WYFF-TV in Greenville discovered this oversight or omission by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The Chronicle asked SCDHEC officials for their side of the story.

Laura Renwick said, "DHEC is actively looking into test reporting procedures to correct any issues that may have resulted in incomplete information.

"To remove any ambiguity about reporting, today DHEC updated its List of Reportable Conditions to explicitly specify that all test results, including both positives and negatives, should be reported within 24 hours.

"During the first few weeks of March when covid-19 was detected in South Carolina, private labs weren't required to report negative results. However, by March 26, DHEC communicated with private labs that they needed to begin providing negative results to the agency as well, and DHEC began providing those as part of our daily web reports since then."

The WYFF TV investigators reported their findings were based on DHEC records and information from labs that report results to DHEC.
Missing positive or negative test results would impact the “percent positive” DHEC reports on a daily basis, WYFF said.

It is a metrics SC school districts use to decide how many children will attend in-person classes.
Missing negative tests - uninfected people - would drive the percent positive higher of those infected.

Missing positive results would make the figure appear lower than it is.

Either way, it distorts reality, masks the truth and frightens the public.

WYFF requested lab-specific data from DHEC July 16. It was compiled and provided more than a month later.
The records show DHEC has collected positive and negative results from at least 219 labs and health organizations.
The records show 97 of the labs reporting test results have a positive result rate higher than 50%.

At least 4 labs told WYFF the figures DHEC provided do not accurately portray the tests they processed.

DHEC records for 1 lab show it has submitted fewer than 4,000 tests, all but 33 positive.

But according to a lab executive, DHEC’s numbers do not include tens of thousands of test results.

These were 4,627 positive and 32,859 negative - about 75% negative as uninfected.
Adding the unaccounted-for results from the single lab would drop the percent positive by 1-10th of a percent.
The executive said DHEC told them to only submit positive results.
Another executive from a different lab echoed that.

The records DHEC provided WYFF list his lab as having 1,139 positive tests out of 1,161 tests performed – 98.1% positive.
He said positive results from tests his lab did in South Carolina was at 9% or fewer each month since May.

That's nearly a 90% difference from the figure in the DHEC report.

It also means that 91% of the actual unreported tests were negative - or from uninfected people.

DHEC records show Bon Secours St. Francis hospital in Greenville has reported 1,477 positive test results and 36 negative results.
“At Bon Secours St. Francis, we only report positive test results,” said communications manager Jennifer Robinson.

“Our chief clinical officer can confirm our positivity rates are dramatically lower than those currently shown by DHEC.”

Along with those, WYFF found 4 more instances where a lab submitted more than 1,000 positive results and fewer than 100 negative results for that lab were entered.
WYFF reported a DHEC spokeswoman told them that private labs were not required to report negative results in early March.

But by March 26, DHEC told the labs they needed to begin providing negative results as well.
DHEC considers covid-19 an urgently reportable condition.

That means labs are required to report results within 24 hours of the results being available.
The DHEC data shows more than half of all test results came through Lab Corp or DHEC’s own lab.

The positive rate was 10.5%.

The data, while mostly separated by company, also includes an “other” section.

 DHEC reports 15.6% of all tests statewide were positive as of Aug. 26.

DHEC, negative, Positive, results, distortions, WYFF-TV

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