Guam

On November 18, 2020, we noticed that you started including a “COVID-19 TESTING ON GUAM” table in your COVID-19 JIC releases. We are currently interpreting Total Molecular Tests and Total Antigen Tests as referring to the total number of tests conducted. Is this correct?

Guam DPHSS currently reports molecular, antigen and serology tests for COVID-19 which are all included in the total number of tests reported.

Do you perform any deduplication to reach the Total Molecular Tests or Total Antigen Tests? If so, how? (i.e. instances swabbed per day/week; recording only one positive test per person, but multiple negative tests for the same person; etc.)?

All testing reported to DPHSS undergoes deduplication to reach total testing numbers. The main deduplication currently conducted is for positive results: we currently report only one positive test per person. If a person tests positive, any follow-up testing is not reported in our counts. Prior to when a person tests positive and for persons who have not tested positive, multiple negatives can be counted per person.

When reporting testing results, if the same person gets different test results on different days, would you report raw results as part of the daily positives or do you apply any kind of logic such as reporting only the first negative or positive result per individual?

We perform the deduplication mentioned above on a daily basis; only the first positive result per individual is reported.

The number of Chamorro cases recently rose above 1000, which led the dashboard to cut off the precise number and read "1k" cases. Can you restore this to be the precise number?

We’ve added the capability for race/ethnicity data to be reported exactly on the dashboard.

Guam's dashboard, the primary source for our demographic data for this territory, has been down for maintenance since 9/26. Is there a planned date for when the dashboard will resume reporting?

Should be up later today!

Will GU begin reporting race/ ethnicity for deaths?

There are no plans to release a breakdown of the deaths here on Guam due to the low number of deaths. We do not break down counts for confidentiality reasons to prevent the risk of disclosing the identities of cases. We do our best to protect the confidentiality of our cases and combat stigma in the face of COVID-19.

We’re having discussions on sharing data regarding Guam COVID-19 deaths which would include race/ethnicity. Happy to send along a notification to you if we start to share these data.

Do you report serology testing data?

Since May 26, our situation report, also available on our website, includes serology testing data.

Why does released from isolation keep decreasing?

Some cases that were previously released from isolation have returned to active isolation status after re-testing positive for COVID-19 through follow-up testing. To date, no additional cases have been linked to people released from isolation.