Washington: December 18, 2020

On January 27, 2021 we began removing negatives that were created from mixed units (specimens minus cases or test encounters minus cases) for states that are using explicit totals in our main total test results field (called totalTestResults in the API). Washington's negatives were backfilled with values calculated from total tests (encounters)-confirmed cases in August 2020. Removing total time series.

On December 16, 2020, Washington added all Probable cases reported since June, 2020 to their data for December 16, 2020. Because Washington’s data is on a one day lag in our data, this affects our data for December 17, 2020. Because Washington's death data no longer includes only confirmed cases, we are clearing our time series of Deaths (confirmed) from 12/17 and onwards.

On 12/18, Washington's Total PCR tests (test encounters) number dropped from the 12/17 number of 3432892 to a much lower 2765404, before rising again on 12/19. Their Negative PCR tests (people), which are calculated as Total PCR tests (test encounters) minus Positive PCR tests (people) were also affected. To accurately report their data trends, we have decided to carry over this metric on December 18, 2020.

On 12/18, Washington's Total Tests number dropped from the 12/17 number of 3432892 to a much lower 2765404, before rising again on 12/19. CTP collected the lower number on 12/18, which was clearly a temporarily blip in their data.

The fix is to carry the 12/17 number forward to 12/18 in order to avoid a major spike in the curve.

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