CLEVELAND — Cleveland announced that it will be unable to release Monday's coronavirus numbers due to a surge in cases. Tuesday afternoon they held a media briefing to explain why.
"As we move into the surge, not only a report, not only are we receiving the 100 plus case, new cases in the city and belonging to the city, but we're receiving additional cases and records that we have to research. So if we receive 100 new cases, we are going through anywhere between one hundred and fifty records to confirm that they belong to Cleveland to 200 new records that are in there. And then we do this on a daily basis," said Interim Cleveland Health Director Brian Kimball.
This is the first time the city hasn't released numbers in some capacity since the start of the pandemic. The city plans to hire more people to help as the surge shows no sign of slowing. "Over the past two weeks, we've identified internal staff to begin to train them on this process. So we increase the number of people who will be reviewing these records, researching these records and identifying if they belong in the city of Cleveland," said Kimball.
It is unknown when the numbers will be released.
The city released the following statement about the numbers Monday night:
"The City of Cleveland is experiencing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases, unlike anything yet reported during this pandemic. Due to the remarkably high number of cases reported over the last two days, the Cleveland Department of Public Health is unable to provide the daily COVID-19 data report at this time. CDPH is still reviewing and analyzing each case that has been reported. Once the data review and analysis process has been completed, a full report will be shared with the public."
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