ADPH: Drastic increase in Madison County COVID-19 cases on Friday was due to wrong data reporting

Whew! Talk about a sense of semi-relief. What looked like a huge spike in new Madison County COVID-19 cases turned out to be a big mistake by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). Even though any additional case is not good news, there is not as many new cases as the ADPH reported on Friday.

Last night the ADPH showed cases in Madison County had increased by 22 in one day, from 194 to 216. Fortunately, the corrected numbers Saturday morning show it only increased by 2 to 196.

The ADPH issued a statement Saturday morning saying incorrect data was entered into their COVID-19 dashboard Friday afternoon.

“In the course of electronic transmission of data, an outside entity mistakenly marked COVID-19 lab results as positive when they were, in fact, negative,” the statement said. “The error was rapidly discovered by the Infectious Disease and Outbreaks Division and ADPH Data Team. The ADPH Data Team has been working since yesterday to correct this information and advises it could take a few days to completely resolve the information from the outside entity.”

The statement also said the entity is cooperating with ADPH in this effort and has reached out to providers who ordered tests through their facility. “ADPH closely monitors data transmitted to us, as the accuracy of information is vital to the COVID-19 outbreak response.”

The ADPH currently shows 4,500 cases of coronavirus in the state with 154 reported deaths.