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The Wright County Health Department (WCHD) reported some landmark figures in their COVID-19 tracking report issued on Jan. 5.
It noted that deaths in the county connected to the coronavirus are now in the 20’s with a total of 23.
Meanwhile, case numbers by town show Mountain Grove having eclipsed the 500 mark with 508. The total jumped by 21 cases in just three days.
Hartville also saw a significant increase, going up 17 cases from 209 to 226. Norwood went up 11 (79 to 90) and Mansfield went up by six cases (214 to 220).
It is important to note that the total number of cases have been recorded over a nine month period.
Another number coming out of the report shows 1,000 cases have people officially out of isolation since the pandemic numbers were being recorded last spring.
That being said, the number of lab confirmed positive tests went up by 59 in just three days.
The posting of numbers has led to some in the county asking why there appears to be a difference between the numbers posted by WCHD and those on the State of Missouri tracking website.
“We recognize that there is confusion regarding why our case counts do not match what the state has reported on their website,” said WCHD Administrator Tracy Hardcastle. “The state reports cases/deaths as they receive the information from all across the state. The investigations are done at the local level and each case’s information is verified to assure that the information is current and accurate. We count our cases as we have investigated and correctly identified them as a Wright County resident. There are several reasons why the count will most likely never match..”
Among the reasons, is the challenge of investigating a positive case first considered to be Wright County, but after further review, the person actually lives in a nearby county. After WCHD catches the error, it takes the state a few days to update their posting.
This also happens to other counties that need to have a case moved from that county over to Wright County.
She also noted that some cases are investigated before they are submitted to the state system.
Address verification or a recent address change to the county are also situations that require clarification and investigation.
Hardcastle commented on the challenge with death totals.
“The deaths that are listed on the state site may not match what we have listed,” she noted. “When we have a death reported to us, we have to wait until the death certificate is complete to verify that the cause of death (or contributing factor) was COVID. Once we have confirmed that from the death certificate, we update our totals. Death certificates can take some time to process through the state vital records system.”
The WCHD continues to provide multiple postings a week on their Facebook page with the latest tracking news.
