The Maryland Department of Health told The Tennessee Star earlier this week that it is working to provide “timely testing number data.”
According to Section 1702 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requiring states to provide “aggregated data on testing and results from State and local public health departments.” Aggregated data includes both positive and negative test results, according to The Star’s interpretation.
Maryland last publicly published confirmed negative cases on March 12, according to the COVID Tracking Report. The state said on its website that as “COVID-19 testing has expanded and is available through commercial laboratories, MDH is no longer reporting negative and pending numbers of tests in Maryland,” but that confirmed positive cases are still reported to the Maryland Department of Health.
Maryland currently reports the number of confirmed positive cases broken down by county on its website. It also reports the number of cases by age range.
“The Maryland Department of Health is committed to providing the most timely, up-to-date and accurate information available,” said a spokesperson in an email to The Star earlier this week. “We are working on a process to provide timely testing number data from the MDH Lab. We will provide additional information as soon as it is available.”
The state failed to clarify what exactly which information would be included in “testing number data.”
As of Tuesday, the state has 349 confirmed positive cases and 3 deaths, according to the Maryland Department of Health.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with Battleground State News and The Michigan Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
