As COVID-19 cases soar in Mississippi, state’s data reporting system proves unreliable
As Mississippi deals with a record number of COVID-19 cases, the State Health Department is also trying to replace a software system that has failed and is crucial to tracking the virus.
Mississippi was without complete COVID-19 numbers for four days, from June 18 through June 21. Business owners, residents and public officials were unable to find out how many new COVID-19 cases they had in their counties.
MSDH Communications Director Liz Sharlot tells the Sun Herald that COVID-19 data by county will not be available for those missing days even though full daily reporting resumed Tuesday. Statewide, the MSDH reported 611 new cases, by far the highest to date, with 22,287 total cases and 978 deaths.
Numbers for the previous four days were reported in one batch on Monday.
The MSDH relies on the software system Epi-Tracks, implemented in 2009. MSDH is shopping for a new data system, Sharlot said, but has not settled on one and does not know when it will be installed.
Sharlot said the MSDH has had problems with COVID-19 data management and timely reporting in Epi-Tracks.
“Basically,” she said, “we are dealing with a software system not specifically designed for our current COVID-19 data needs.”
In normal times, the health department uses data management for regular reports on diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis and AIDS, case and outbreak investigations and management, data analysis, and reporting to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 has added a slew of data at a state health department already dealing with budget and staff cuts. The MSDH has confirmed that it had fewer employees when the pandemic started than it did 20 years earlier, a smaller budget than it had in 2015, and health districts whittled from nine to three across the state.
Mississippi’s missing COVID-19 data has been noted by public health officials tracking the disease nationally.
“I have seen intermittent ‘blips’ in Georgia, Colorado, and others as they were bringing new systems online,” said T.J. Muehleman, CEO of the Standard Co., a global health data platform that tracks disease and provides information to organizations in the U.S. and other countries.
“Down times of a day or two are common when updates are taking place, especially when dealing with something like COVID where systems were cobbled together in a rush. Systems often need to be reconfigured after an outbreak has already begun to account for changes in methodology.”
Muehleman is familiar with Mississippi’s four days of missing data because he also founded the COVID Mapping Project to track the virus nationwide.
“Regarding the data itself, it’s incredibly important,” Muehleman said. “During disease outbreak or containment, data is what informs you on where the disease is occurring. And how badly. And to whom.
“During containment, data is what tells you how well your interventions are working. If people are still getting sick. If you don’t use data, you end up with policymakers and public health officials making decisions based on intuition or ‘gut feel’ instead of science.
“And I honestly think that’s what we’re seeing in a lot of states that are spiking right now (Texas, Arizona, Florida for example). Governors are ignoring the data in front of them and instead are making politically expedient decisions.”
Kaye Bender, executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association, said she looks at Mississippi’s COVID-19 data daily, when it is available. And she knows others rely on it to make decisions.
For example, she said, the city of Oxford and University of Mississippi would use the data to coordinate a response to an increased number of cases in the area that have been traced to summer fraternity rush parties.
“The coronavirus information is getting into the realm of big data,” she said. Other diseases that have to be reported do not include such big numbers, in terms of cases or testing.
But businesses, churches and people at risk of infection rely on the numbers to make decisions about what they should and shouldn’t do.
“That’s how we tell right now, especially about the community spread,” Bender said. “It seems like we’ve almost maxed out on the new cases in the long-term care facilities, thank goodness.
“But now that we are kind of reopening businesses and restaurants and bars, and churches are getting back together for worship, these numbers are important for community public health folks to see where the spread is greatest.”
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
