Some Madison County Board members are questioning the COVID-19 positivity rate used by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to impose stricter mitigation rules for Region 4 after Health Department Administrator Toni Corona said during the Health Department Committee meeting that private labs are not required to report negative tests.
“We need to immediately determine the validity of these numbers used to determine our positivity rate,” committee chairman Ray Wesley (R) stated in a press release. “If not all tests are being used in the calculation, our community is being shut down with incomplete data.”
During the Sept. 4 meeting, Corona responded to a series of questions about how tests are counted in Illinois. She explained that Madison County receives its numbers from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which does not require private labs to report negative tests.
“It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out if positive, but not negative tests are being reported, the positivity rate is completely inaccurate,” stated board member Erica Conway-Harriss (R). “This is cause for serious alarm.”
However, Corona stressed that she does not think that this is a common issue, if it is happening at all.
The conversation began with questions about how tests are counted.
Board member Tom McRae asked if someone who tests positive is then counted again if they take another test to make sure they are no longer positive.
Corona clarified that no positive test is counted twice. She also said that Madison County uses a “time-based strategy,” so people are not required to test a second time to determine if they are still positive. People who test positive with COVID-19 are required to be in isolation for 10 days, and close contacts are quarantined.
“Nine times out of 10, if you recover from Covid and you go and get another Covid test, you’re likely to come back positive,” Corona said.
“We don’t want that to be confusing at all,” she added. “We are not counting tests twice.”
McRae asked if the same system is used for negative tests.
Corona explained that negative tests are simply counted as a test, the denominator in the positivity rate.
“They are counted as a test, but we don’t keep track of the negative tests. We keep track of the positive tests,” she said.
Harriss asked for clarification if each negative test was counted every time.
“A test is a test, and a case is a case,” Corona responded.
Harriss said she didn’t understand why the total tests counted appear to be dropping, especially with several businesses conducting regular tests on hundreds of employees.
Corona responded that it’s possible employers are using private laboratories, which are not linked to the Department of Public Health and are not required to report negative results. She said it is possible that the state is not receiving all of the negative tests.
Harriss asked if those numbers would then make the percent positive inaccurate.
Corona said she does not think the negative test results not being reported would be enough to affect the positivity rate.
“I don’t think it happens as often as you would think it does,” she said.
Harriss noted that her concerns are not directed at the Madison County Health Department, as the reporting requirements are established by the state.
“Trying to just rally for truth here,” she said.
Corona added that she would like to put together additional information to help clarify and better explain the reporting process.
McRae said reporting the negative test results should be a requirement in order to avoid skewing the positivity rate.
Corona added that there are two scenarios to determine mitigation measures. The first is a reduction in hospital capacity. The second is determined if a region sees three consecutive days with a positivity rate above 8 percent. Madison County’s restrictions are the result of high positivity rates.
As of Sept. 7, Madison County had a 12.57 percent positivity rate, according to the Madison County Health Department’s website.The three-day average was 8.78 percent, the seven-day average was 7.31 percent and the 10-day average was 8.33 percent.
Madison County is currently in the “orange” zone, which “indicates there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county,” according to the state’s website.
The increased mitigation efforts that went into effect Sept. 2 for Region 4, which includes Madison County, include no indoor bar and restaurant service, required reservations for contact tracing purposes, limits of 25 guests or 25 percent capacity for social gatherings, and no party buses, among other mitigation requirements.