PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Delaware's COVID-19 percent positive numbers recently reached their highest point in months. But a change to how those numbers are reported might bring them back down.
These days more coronavirus tests are being giving out in Delaware than the number of different people taking those tests since some people now get tested multiple times.
So Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of Delaware's Division of Public Health, said rather than just focusing on person-based percent positive numbers like they've been doing, they'll also include numbers based on the amount of tests taken on their data dashboard.
"The total test is the recommended approach for Johns Hopkins as well as the CDC," she said, "so it's important to us to be able to present data consistent with those recommendations."
Test-based results represent the percentage of the tested population infected which she says is more beneficial now than earlier in the pandemic.
"Now that more and more people are being tested and people are getting repeat tests, that calculation is better to assess, kind of, your overall prevalence or burden of infection overall, over time," she explained.
Another reason they're doing this is to compare their data with other states, since this is how most states report their numbers.
Delaware's high percent positive numbers are the reason the state has spent so much time on New Jersey's travel advisory list.