Data correction drops COVID vaccine rates in Pa.

HARRISBURG » The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week dropped its percentage of vaccinated adults in Pennsylvania by nearly five percentage points in what apparently was a data correction to weed out duplicates.

The agency on Wednesday adjusted the percentage to 68.9%, after a day earlier putting the percentage at 73.7% of Pennsylvanians 18 and older.

The downward revision amounted to a reduction of about 1.2 million doses.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Health said it sends its data to the CDC, and began in July to refine its data to remove duplicate information and correct data on first, second and booster doses.

“On Nov. 23, the CDC began to rectify their data to match Pennsylvania COVID-19 vaccine data and we anticipate the CDC to go through a similar process with other states across the country,” the department said in a statement.

The data correction comes as infections, hospitalizations and intensive-care unit cases are rising in Pennsylvania and many other states.

The department said Wednesday there are 3,349 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, up about 21% in November. That includes 763 in the ICU, up about 17% in November.

More than 33,000 people in Pennsylvania have died from COVID-19, according to Department of Health data.

“On Nov. 23, the CDC began to rectify their data to match Pennsylvania COVID-19 vaccine data and we anticipate the CDC to go through a similar process with other states across the country.”

— Pennsylvania’s Department of Health