OC health officials’ mistake led to false numbers of coronavirus tests, Orange County Register reports

SANTA ANA, California (KABC) – A mistake by Orange County health officials led to some false numbers of tests for coronavirus, the Orange County Registry reported Wednesday.

The mistake involved using both antibody test data in conjunction with diagnostic tests, mistakenly adding about 30,000 more tests to the advertised total number administered, according to the newspaper.

This led to an inflated statistic for more than a month in Orange County. The bug was caught and then fixed, but it seemed like the evidence was greater and the pandemic was less intense in the county than it actually was at the time.

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Still, there is some skepticism among groups that have called for more transparency.

Meanwhile, the hospitalization numbers in the county continue to rise. As of Wednesday, 542 people were hospitalized.

The number of patients in intensive care is also increasing, from 176 to 192.

The county’s positive testing rate increased to 10.4%, which is higher than the state’s desired rate of 8%.