West Virginia’s DHHR has announced improvements to its dashboard of coronavirus information, including greater detail at the county level.
“This information will better inform individuals about what is happening in their own county,” stated Bill Crouch, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Resources.
“It can help guide action, emphasizing the importance of both individual and community prevention efforts.”
The dashboard was expected to be updated about 5 p.m. Friday.
Since its debut a couple of months ago, the dashboard has been updated several times to include expanded information.
Crouch and State Health Officer Cathy Slemp described the new changes during a Friday briefing about West Virginia’s coronavirus response.
Slemp said the newly-displayed information would include active and recovered cases by county.
“Recovery data from case investigations allows us to look at outcomes – following individuals through to their end of illness,” Slemp stated.
In alignment with updated definitions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard now includes probable cases.
Probable cases are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody) or epidemiologic (a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but no confirmatory test.
“Inclusion of probable cases in the publicly reported case counts more accurately represents disease burden in communities and provides us with better information to drive behavioral change and appropriate response,” Slemp stated.
Implementation of these changes will initially result in a one-time larger than usual increase in cases and a one-time unusual decrease in the number of lab tests on the next update, officials said.