New Jersey

Yesterday (10/18) our team discovered that demographic data for NJ's cases, deaths, and hospitalizations was inaccessible unless we had a Tableau login. We're wondering whether this might be resolved soon? Or maybe there's another way for us to access this information? We record demographic data regularly, so it would be really helpful for us to have access to the data.

Please try again now and let me know if you have any other issues.

We are currently interpreting Total PCR Tests Reported as referring to the total number of tests conducted. Is this correct?

Yes

If so, do you have plans to release the total number of unique individuals tested?

No. This would be difficult. We do de-dupe the positive results, but given the workload of staff we don’t have the resources currently to remove duplicate negative results.

Do you have plans to release a full historical time-series of all testing and results? We have been capturing the total test results in Total PCR Tests Reported since 5/11/2020. Do you plan to release a historical time series of that number? Will this historical data set be available consistently and in an automation friendly form, like an ArcGIS or CKAN API or a direct download of CSV or JSON?

Not at this time.

Other states provide their COVID-19 testing and outcomes in machine readable format, but as far as we are aware New Jersey Department of Health does not at this time. Do you have plans to release this data in a machine readable format, like an ArcGIS or CKAN API or a direct download of CSV or JSON?

If by “outcomes” you mean hospitalizations and deaths, at this time we do not allow machine readable format due to concerns that this will have confidentiality issues (ability to see small numbers behind certain outcomes on certain days). We are exploring ways to allow this to happen without jeopardizing confidentiality.

Do you perform any deduplication to reach the Total PCR Tests Reported? 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.)?

When the Department gets positive test results, we work to “de-duplicate” them so that each positive individual is counted as a case only once. Total PCR tests reported are just that – the total number of tests performed (not the number of patients tested and not de-duped).

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?

When we report cases, we only report the first positive. When we report daily positivity, it is a percentage positive of all tests done on a day (and may include duplicate testing).

We’re also interested in testing data in units of “testing encounters”, which can be defined as “the number of unique people who have been tested per day.” Under this metric, if a person is being tested once today and once again the following week, that counts as two tests, however, if the same person has two samples tested at a testing center visit, then that only counts as one testing encounter. Are you willing to or are you planning to release testing encounters?

No.

Is New Jersey performing pool testing? How is this testing reported? What types of tests are you using?

The state is not performing pooled testing at this time. Three commercial labs that we partner with (Bioreference, Quest and LabCorp) are all pooling some of their specimens using a variety of molecular test methods. Tests are reported individually for each patient (if four specimens in a pool test negative, a negative result is reported for each patient; if a pool is positive, the individual specimens in the pool are retested and results reported individually for each patient).

Is New Jersey conducting antigen testing? If so, how many antigen tests have you conducted and are these testing results reported on the state site?

New Jersey is not conducting antigen testing. Several private laboratories throughout the state are performing antigen testing. All antigen results (positive and negative) are required to be reported to public health. Results are not currently reported to the state website.

Could NJ separate the categories currently combined in 'other'?

This category cannot be separated as the field is collected as “Other race”.

Should we use the information from the PDF or from the dashboard (which are different)?

The sources for the data are the same however they are updated online at different times. The dashboard is updated daily. The PDF document (age-adjusted laboratory confirmed case and mortality rates by race/ethnicity) is updated weekly.

What are some of the factors leading to the large number of cases without data?

One major factor is race and ethnicity are not collected by the ordering provider at point of care testing as such a vast number of case reports that we receive do not have race and ethnicity values.

I would like to know if we can get a time series of the dates on which the 1854 probable deaths occurred. If we do not have the time series, it will appear as if all the deaths occurred today, and it will cause confusion about the state of pandemic in NJ. If the information is available electronically via CSV or any other format, we can update the data on our end to reflect the timeline of when the probable deaths occurred in a more accurate fashion.

We are reporting the number of probable deaths separately from confirmed deaths for a number of reasons. On our dashboard and on your site, you list the number of "new deaths reported today." Probable deaths in NJ are not going to be reported in this format – there is no "new probable deaths today" indicator. We will be updating the cumulative number of probable deaths on the dashboard weekly. Since the "reported today" format you are using to share this information isn't compatible with how we will be reporting them, you may not want to include probable deaths in the daily counts on your website. If you decide to include them, we recommend that you reference the weekly update timeframe in the notes.