More than 1,600 COVID-19 cases never reached Alaska database after lab failed to report results for weeks

Hundreds of positive COVID-19 test results were not reported to the Alaska Department of Health over the past month, one of many indicators of a taxed data reporting system and a sign that the increase in the daily number of cases reported by the state reflects only a portion of recent cases.

Public health officials periodically check labs and clinics to understand the number of their cases and make sure the department is not missing anything. Recently, they discovered that data from a specific lab was missing, state epidemiologist Dr Louisa Castrodale said in a Friday call with reporters.

Beachtree Labs, a new commercial lab in Anchorage, has mixed up how it was supposed to report testing to the state’s epidemiology section, said Coleman Cutchins, a clinical pharmacist who is leading the testing effort of the State.

Patients and providers always got their results within 24 to 48 hours, Cutchins said, “so it didn’t affect patient care.

Out of 13,169 tests performed, many of which were done in the past two weeks, there were 1,636 positive results, according to a recent update from the state’s health department. Until Wednesday, the lab had not released data for about a month. These results included 357 cases in Anchorage and 880 positive results in the Matanuska-Susitna district.

Beyond the lack of reports from a single lab, backlogs and slowdowns affect the entire COVID-19 data system. An understaffed department is one of them, Castrodale said. The daily count of cases is likely an undercount and instead reflects the number of people the department has to enter new cases into the database.

Lack of personnel is not only a problem in the service of state health. It’s statewide, in clinics and labs as well, Castrodale said.

“It’s fair to say the system is strained,” she said.

Alaska isn’t alone when it comes to hiccups and slowing down. The state’s chief medical officer, Dr Anne Zink, said on the call that every state in the country is struggling with similar issues.

But even without specific numbers that show what is happening each day, Castrodale said they could be “absolutely certain there was continued acceleration”. In addition, case trends such as one and two week case averages can help provide a clearer picture of the current situation.

While Beachtree Labs is located in Anchorage, they collected samples from people in Kenai, Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla, public health informant Megan Tompkins said on Friday. There are still around 900 positive results that are not shown in the state’s database due to the delay in reporting, she said.

“We are working on them every day as quickly as possible in addition to the queue of all the other cases that are in that queue,” Tompkins said.

Some of the cases in Friday’s tally, which included a significant increase in cases within Mat-Su, are attributable to these overdue cases, Tompkins said.