State Lab Data Collection System Problem Affecting COVID-19 Tallies in Pasadena, Rest of County

The Los Angeles County Health Department announced Tuesday that figures for new COVID-19 infections detected in the county in recent weeks had been undercounted due to issues with the state’s electronic lab reporting system.

The widespread problem was affecting areas throughout the state, including Pasadena, officials said.

The issue has resulted in “slight delays” in Pasadena’s reported COVID-19 statistics, which are in the process of being improved, said city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.

The data has not been inaccurate, but has seen periodic delays, followed by backlogs being added to the tally, Derderian said.

“Essentially, all health systems use the (state calREDIE system) to triage lab results to the appropriate jurisdictions,” Derderian said. “If there are issues, it affects all parties involved.”

L.A. County public health officials said the agency had noticed issues with the system for about two weeks, but learned of the scope of the problem at an emergency meeting convened by state officials on Monday night.

“This issue has undercounted the county’s positive cases and affects the number of COVID-19 cases reported each day and our contact tracing efforts,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a written statement. But since labs notify patients who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus directly, those with positive results should still be receiving prompt notification.

As state officials worked to sort out the technological problems, county health officials embarked on a mission to contact dozens of labs in the county to confirm their results and get a complete count, according to county officials. As a result, true figures on new infections are expected to be higher than reported over the prior two weeks once the work is complete.

L.A. County public health officials were also setting up a system for labs to report results directly to the county in the future, “so that moving forward the department can have an accurate case count and be assured that contact tracing efforts are not delayed,” according to the statement.

Despite the apparent unreliability of recent COVID-19 infection data, other signs not affected by the issue — such as hospitalization rates — still pointed to a decreasing spread of the virus in the region, according to L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer.

“Hospitalization data for Los Angeles County still shows a decrease, and we continue to be cautiously optimistic that our efforts over the past few weeks may be starting to slow the spread,” she said.