WA Reports Thousands Of Coronavirus Cases After Clearing Backlog

OLYMPIA, WA — The Washington State Department of Health on Monday reported nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases. However, officials said the startling figure resulted from a backlog in positive results over the weekend and an estimated 1,800 duplicates that still need to be culled from the system. On Tuesday, the state reported more than 2,900 new cases, including up to 650 potential duplicates.

In a news release, health officials said the state had caught up with processing positive results after temporary slowdowns caused by upgrading servers last week. The relatively high number of duplicate results will be removed from the data as part of the standard verification process.

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Another unresolved issue, officials said, is with negative test results, which are incomplete between Nov. 21 and Dec. 7. Teams are working to process the rest of the data and will fill in the gaps retroactively. Until that is complete, the testing positivity rates reflected on the state's online dashboard will be incomplete.

The Department of Health said the most reliable way to track case growth is under the "epidemiologic curves" tab, which shows illnesses based on the date when transmission is believed to have occurred. According to that data, the state's rolling average remains above 2,000 cases reported each day.