Department of Health updates COVID reporting schedule

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - The Virginia Department of Health says it will now report COVID-19 cases weekly “to align with the CDC’s current reporting frequency.”

VDH also says on its website that it “continues to streamline information on its COVID-19 data dashboards to better highlight current COVID-19 trends in Virginia and inform action.”

Anong the updates on the cases summary dashboard:

An overview page for the data dashboards that shows the impact of COVID-19 in Virginia.
Graphs replace the numbers currently listed for each metric. Each dashboard and dataset will be linked to more data.
Data will be categorized by the trend (indicator) they represent. The categories include incidence indicators, severity indicators, vaccination levels and surveillance of variants.

The following dashboards have been retired or moved:

PCR Percent Positivity has been retired “because this measure no longer captures what is happening in the community,” VDH said. “While the testing encounters PCR only results are accurate, it is not fully representative of all testing in Virginia.” The associated dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will be updated weekly.
Testing data are no longer available on the Cases Summary dashboard. The associated dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will be updated weekly. The Testing dashboard was retired in October.
Outbreaks are no longer available on the cases Summary dashboard. The Outbreaks dashboard is available and updated weekly.
MIS-C cases and MIS-C deaths are no longer available on the Cases Summary dashboard. The associated dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will be updated weekly. The MIS-C dashboard was retired in October.

“The changes are intended to streamline the information that is most helpful in tracking COVID-19 and its impacts on Virginia at this point in the pandemic,” VDH said.