reported today might mean the county received word of 120 new cases but is retroactively removing 20 others found to be duplicates from prior reports.) The county is aware of these issues. Public Health Director Sofia Pereira hinted at some of them during a press conference last week, saying that “certain data has become more or less reliable” over time and the current daily case report “doesn’t give us the full picture like we used to have.” She said the county will soon move to reporting testing data three times a week instead of five, and is also working on a new dashboard. (When the new dashboard launches, Public Health says it will use the same formula for test-positivity rates as CDPH, which should allow for more meaningful comparisons.) It’s worth adding that at this stage in the pandemic, even accurate daily case counts shouldn’t impact people’s behaviors and risk calculations. The bottom line is that Omicron continues to circulate widely in Humboldt County and residents should behave accordingly, whether 50 cases were confirmed yesterday or 500. With all that in mind, we’ll continue looking at testing reports and the dashboard daily, and when there are noteworthy things — confirmed deaths, significant jumps or declines in the hospital census, bumps in vaccination totals, identifiable trends — we’ll report them. But dropping the daily reporting ritual will allow our reporters to devote the time saved to working on more meaningful, in-depth stories that better help readers navigate and make sense of the pandemic and its impacts. l
Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@ northcoastjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @thadeusgreenson. northcoastjournal.com • Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 • NORTH COAST JOURNAL
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