COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Health reported "artificially low, incomplete COVID-19" case numbers on Tuesday due to an electronic laboratory reporting error.
According to ODH, testing data from labs across the state is automatically submitted to the department through a system that feeds into the Ohio Disease Reporting System.
On Monday, ODH received five incorrect ELR files from a long-term care facility.
The state said every file submitted had both valid lab results and invalid rows of data.
According to the department, the volume of invalid data rows caused a backlog in the system, which delayed the system from being able to process confirmed COVID-19 cases from other facilities.
No lab results have been processed since 5 p.m. on Monday.
The state said reported cases will be underreported until the backlog is cleared and valid lab results can pass through again.
There were only 4,163 new COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, less than one-quarter of the 21-day daily case average of 20,335.
New hospitalizations trended upward Tuesday with 565 reported over the last 24 hours, nearly 200 above the 21-day average of 378.
There were 19,213 COVID-19 tests conducted in Ohio on January 23, the latest day testing data has been reported by the ODH. Of those tests, 26.6% were positive, compared to the seven-day moving average positivity rate of 26.8%.
On Jan. 15, the omicron variant made up 92.15% of COVID cases over the previous two weeks that were genomically sequenced in Ohio. The delta variant made up the remaining 7.85%.
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