Some private laboratories in Florida were not reporting negative COVID-19 test results to the Department of Health as required by the state, leading to 100% positivity rates being reported for those labs, the DOH confirmed to ABC affiliate WPLG.
“In recent days, the Florida Department of Health noticed that some smaller, private labs weren’t reporting negative test result data to the state,” the DOH told WPLG in a statement. “The Department immediately began working with those labs to ensure that all results were being reported in order to provide comprehensive and transparent data.”
Coronavirus in Florida: COVID-19 cases, locations and updates across the Sunshine State
The Department of Health did not say exactly how many centers were not reporting negative results or how big an impact it had on Florida's percent positive numbers.
According to Johns Hopkins, Florida has a 7-day average of more than 18% positivity rate for tests performed.
The state has more than 300,000 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.