April 9, 2020 – Information overload can lead to confusion, so can dueling data sets. Currently, the State is providing Hospital data on Positive Patients, Suspected Patients, ICU Positive Patients and ICU Suspected Patients via a public-facing data portal. For Nevada County, the April 8 data shows 2 positive patients, 2 positive ICU patients, 7 suspected patients and 2 suspected ICU patients.
Yet, Nevada County stats show 34 cases. Add to that individual hospital statistics like the one provided by the Tahoe Forest Health System, currently showing 46 positive tests to date. We unpack the data sets for you to show what each data bucket represents and why each one is correct within their “bucket universe.”
Hospital data
Hospital data displayed on the state’s open data portal is entered by hospitals into an online web interface at the end of each day.
For April 8th, the latest data available, 21 confirmed cases are listed. Those are the total hospitalized Nevada County patients.
A different data set from the same data portal, shows current COVID-19 patients in Nevada County hospitals as 2.
Tahoe Forest Health System cares for residents and visitors in six counties and two states. TFHD’s total number (46) reflects patients who have come to them for service, regardless of where they claim primary residence.
County data
The Nevada County data is reported by the Public Health Department, it comprises all positive tests within the county reported by healthcare providers. The East/West split – with Donner Summit being the dividing line – shows 24 cases on the east side, the Truckee area. This prompted a video message by District 5 Supervisor Richard Anderson, asking folks to delay travel to the area until the Governor has lifted restrictions on non-essential travel.
Once the number of cases reaches 50 or above, additional metrics like gender and age will be released.
