COLUMBUS, Ohio — Editor's Note: This video is from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's Dec. 7, 2020 news conference on COVID-19.
The backlog of pending COVID-19 case files in Ohio was cleared Tuesday, causing a one-day spike in cases with 25,721 cases reported.
Tuesday's report included both the daily case data and the approximately 13,000 antigen test results that were part of the report backlog, with some dating back to Nov. 1. The onset date for those cases have been backfilled and appropriately recorded.
Tuesday's numbers also included approximately 100 hospital admissions of probable COVID-19 cases from the backlogged antigen reports, which contributed to the reported hospitalization admissions of 657.
At the beginning of the pandemic, only PCR tests were available for the diagnosis of COVID-19. As antigen tests were developed in the spring, the CDC issued guidance that allowed for a positive antigen test to be counted as a probable case only if additional criteria were met. The additional criteria included either an epidemiological link to a known case of COVID-19, or symptoms of COVID-19.
As healthcare providers and public health professionals have become more familiar with antigen tests, and it plays a greater role in the overall testing strategy of the state, ODH will now be adopting the CDC definitions.
“After understanding more about antigen tests, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), changed their case definition in August allowing antigen tests to be included in case counts without additional verification,” ODH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said. “ODH is now aligned with CDC’s current definition and we will begin reflecting those tests immediately in our daily reported case counts moving forward.”
All cases, whether confirmed or probable, from a PCR or antigen test, will still go through the same case investigation and interview process. The adoption of new case definitions simply allows for ODH to count probable cases from antigen tests in a more timely manner, which means all Ohioans will have a more accurate, real-time understanding of the spread of COVID-19.
For the public, the information seen on coronavirus.ohio.gov will largely remain the same. Users will still be able to see cases by total counts, confirmed counts, and probable counts on the main dashboard.
On the testing dashboard, users will be able to toggle between PCR-only, antigen-only, and combined testing volumes and positivity rates. Ohio will add these test results to our positivity calculation in the coming days.
More information on the overall numbers can be found on the coronavirus.ohio.gov website.