Missouri COVID-19 database error leads to incorrect inflation in reported infections
A database error led to an inaccurate inflation in the number of coronavirus infections reported Saturday to Missouri’s public COVID-19 dashboard, the state’s health department said Sunday.
As a result, the state’s website reported an additional 5,020 cases in 24 hours, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The state’s data had suggested Saturday was the largest single-day increase in infections since the pandemic began — with 835 new cases — in the Kansas City metro area, which encompasses regions in Missouri and Kansas.
More than half of Saturday’s increase was reported in Kansas City and Jackson County, with a combined 584 new cases.
Health department employees were working to resolve the issue with the public dashboard, which Missouri launched a new version of Sept. 28. The database will be updated after.
In a statement, the health department noted that new infections have been reported accurately to local agencies for investigations.
“We are committed to continually improving our practices,” Randall Williams, the health department’s director, said in a statement. “While our updated internal processes serve the purpose of reporting data with greater granularity, finalizing the new approach to replace manual entry presents our team with technical challenges that we are working through.”
As of Sunday, the database showed 144,230 residents to date have been infected by the virus, including 2,422 who have died.
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 5:47 PM.
