ADPH works out 'growing pains' in reporting delays

It appears the state and Elmore County saw a spike in cases in the last 24 hours, but the Alabama Department of Public Health said things may not be exactly as they appear.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), (ADPH) and its vendor have resolved issues related to delays in the national surveillance system. Delays affect the number of cases and tested reported on this dashboard," ADPH wrote in a notice on its COVID-19 dashboard. "As a result of a reporting backlog, this dashboard appears to display sizable increases in all numbers. The reason is that there has been a lag time in adding some reports.

"The national surveillance pipeline became overwhelmed earlier this week due to a large increase in the volume of COVID-19 laboratory results. ADPH staff worked tirelessly with CDC and its vendor to resolve the issues as quickly as possible."

ADPH said earlier this week it was experiencing growing pains in reporting COVID-19 numbers and was seeing delays. 

Comparing ADPH's data from 24 hours ago to noon Saturday shows there was an increase of 636 new COVID-19 cases in the state, now at 19,709 positive cumulative cases. ADPH's statement means some of these cases may have been diagnosed earlier this week but due to delays they were not reported on time and it now appears to be a large one-day increase. However, it is stating all data is now accurate.

There are 334 probable cases in the state. 

According to ADPH's website, probable cases are the total number of patients who have had close contact with a confirmed case, have symptoms meeting clinical criteria of COVID-19 and have no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID-19.

In the last 14 days, there have been 5,572 new confirmed cases with 72,848 tests given. 

Elmore County's case count increased by 20, now at 401 confirmed cases with 10 COVID-19 deaths. Elmore County has the 12th-most cases in the state. There are 11 probable cases in Elmore County and zero probable deaths. Elmore County has seen 149 new cases of 1,317 tested in the last two weeks, according to ADPH.

Tallapoosa County, which has the 10th-most cases in the state, added four new cases, now at 439 confirmed cases with 66 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Tallapoosa County still ranks No. 3 for most deaths in the state. There are five probable cases in Tallapoosa County and zero probable deaths.

ADPH's 14-day count-specific data shows Tallapoosa County has seen 47 new cases and 736 tested in the last two weeks. 

Coosa County is still at 40 confirmed cases with one confirmed death. There are no probable deaths or cases. There have been seven new cases and 73 tested in the last two weeks, according to ADPH.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been 245,310 tests performed throughout the state, according to ADPH. A total of 312 have been tested in Coosa County, 3,796 in Elmore County and 2,869 in Tallapoosa County.

According to ADPH's presumed recoveries category, which will be updated weekly and was updated Wednesday evening, 11,395 people have presumably recovered from COVID-19. 

"Cases are presumed recovered if it has been 14 days or more since the case tested positive if they were not hospitalized, or if it has been 32 days or more since the case tested positive if they were hospitalized or if hospitalization was unknown," ADPH wrote in a Facebook post. "All deaths excluded."

Statewide, there have been 685 deaths due to COVID-19 and four probable deaths, according to ADPH.

Confirmed and probable deaths represent patients who have a death certificate that lists COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death. Confirmed deaths have a laboratory confirmation of the disease while probable deaths have no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID-19.

There have been 1,993 hospitalizations across the state since March 13, according to ADPH.

Since March 13, there have been 612 patients in intensive care units and 363 on a ventilator. In the medical field, 2,366 healthcare workers in hospitals and doctors' offices have tested positive. When it comes to long-term care facilities, 1,085 employees and 1,779 residents have tested positive for COVID-19. 

All data can be viewed here.

Here is the latest information for each county as of noon Saturday (listed in order of counties with most confirmed cases first):