FL Cuts Ties To Lab Over 75K “Dumped” Test Results

September 3, 2020 Coronavirus, Government

The Washington Post reports:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is cutting ties with the coronavirus testing lab responsible for reporting covid-19 test data to the state’s public database after the lab reported a backlog of nearly 75,000 test results dating back to April.

The state Department of Health and the Division of Emergency Management severed its ties to Quest Diagnostics, a multinational medical lab headquartered in New Jersey, on Tuesday, according to a news release. Because of the delay, the data was dumped, causing the state’s reported coronavirus counts to spike drastically in one day.

DeSantis said in the release that the lab broke the law by not reporting the results “in a timely manner.” His office was informed of the backlog and data dumping Monday night, according to the release.

BREAKING UPDATE: The Florida Department of Health on Monday reported 7,569 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 after what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office called a “dump” of 80,000 test results.https://t.co/0fj6cHccuj

— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) September 1, 2020