All positive COVID-19 tests at Florida labs?
Hospital system says that’s wrong, casts blame for false data reports
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Florida Department of Health in its daily COVID-19 report lists multiple laboratories throughout the state – many of them small testing sites – with 100% positivity rates, but Southwest Florida’s dominant hospital system said Wednesday it is incorrect to say 100% of their labs are positive.
The Lee Health hospital system is reporting that its laboratory testing of potential COVID-19 cases has shown an overall positivity rate of about 18%, despite the state report showing that all people coming in for testing at some of its labs have the novel coronavirus.
While it seems a statistical improbability, the state’s reports have shown all-negative and allpositive test results from labs since it began releasing comprehensive daily coronavirus summaries in midMarch.
The Department of Health issued a statement to Florida media blaming the labs for incorrectly reporting data: “In recent days, the Florida Department of Health noticed that some smaller, private labs weren’t reporting negative test result data to the state. The Department
immediately began working with those labs to ensure that all results were being reported in order to provide comprehensive and transparent data.”
The state Department of Health started producing daily coronavirus summary reports March 16. That first report included results from 42 labs, 29 of which either reported 100% positive or 100% negative tests.
Lee Health labs first showed up in this daily summary report on March 27, with three labs – Lee Memorial Gulf Coast, Lee Health Coconut Point and Lee Memorial Hospital – reporting a total of five tests between them, all positive.
“We are aware of a report by the Florida Department of Health that shows 100% of Lee Memorial Hospital Lab COVID-19 tests were reported as positive,” Lee Health spokesman Jonathon Little said in a statement Wednesday.
“For the health and safety of our community, we have prioritized transparency throughout this pandemic. We have been accurately reporting our positive and negative test results to the Florida Department of Health, and we are working with the department to resolve this discrepancy.”
Little said the state report only reflects tests done by Lee Health labs and not the results of thousands of samples taken by its mobile sites that are then sent to private labs for testing.
“Lee Health labs have processed a total of 29,557 tests. Of those, 5,351 have been positive and 24,206 have been negative, for a positivity rate of 18.1%. Yesterday, we processed 638 tests. Of those, 182 were positive and 446 were negative, for a positivity rate of 28.5%.”
It’s unclear how the discrepancies between the state and hospitals might affect overall state statistics on COVID-19, if at all. On Wednesday, the state counted 10,181 new cases, bringing the total number of cases this year in Florida to 301,810.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he is trying to figure out ways to speed test results. With thousands of people being tested, labs are backed up around the country, he said. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.