Data Downloads
Reports
Data Notes
August 11, 2020: On 7/31, DOH stopped reporting negative lab data because of several data processing issues that gave us incorrect totals. These issues involved people who received multiple tests. As we work to solve this issue, today we are reporting negative lab data, but it should be considered preliminary. These data reflect in a drop in the number of people testing negative. This decrease in individuals testing negative dates back to June, but has been more pronounced recently. We hope to be able to share more about what caused this issue, and what our solution is, soon. Our team is working hard to post new information as soon as it is available. Data will be finalized and available within a week.
In addition, we discovered that 135 labs were mistakenly entered as positives instead of negatives. Those labs were entered manually, including 133 added between 8/7 and 8/10. We will be correcting those records immediately.
July 13, 2020: The Department is continuing to work on changes to provide more context to death reporting and report death counts that reflect deaths where COVID-19 caused or contributed to the death. We have made additional steps in this process and are removing 39 from our counts. All of these are natural deaths, and after review it was determined that COVID-19 did not cause or contribute to the death. We will continue to update death counts as additional information on cause of death is received.
Notes on testing:
- Effective July 1, 2020, DOH has added a downloadable table on the "Testing" tab that has individuals with positive and negative tests, and the percent of positive tests by county and day.
- Two important data issues continue to effect results presented on the testing tab. The first is that there are negative lab results that have not yet been entered into our data system. The second is that about 21% of negative test results do not have an assigned county. These two issues impact some counties disproportionately. Department of Health continues to work on a sustainable solution.
- Regarding reporting for testing in general, the data presented is by number of individuals not by number of tests. An individual is only counted one time in all graphics and tables. They are classified by their first positive test result, or their first negative if they never had a positive test.
Note on the deaths: Some deaths may be reported by health care providers, medical examiners/coroners, local health departments, or others before they are included in the statewide count. It takes longer for the state to announce deaths because they are often reported first to the local health department and then to us.
Case Report Date, June 16, 2020: As of June 16, 2020, DOH switched from using the date a case was reported to the Department of Health to the date of an individual’s first positive lab result. This is a more accurate designation of case confirmation that will shift some case counts by date, most noticeably for cumulative case counts and graphics. This will affect less than 10% of the reported cases.
Note on the number of infections: Public health experts agree that the true number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 in Washington greatly exceeds the number of COVID-19 infections that have been laboratory-confirmed. It is very difficult to know exactly how many people in Washington have been infected to date since most people with COVID-19 experience mild illness and the ability to get tested is still not widely available.