Tennessee’s online reporting system for collecting coronavirus test results failed over the weekend. Because of the technical problems, the state released no data Sunday at its pandemic website.
The glitch comes as Tennessee is seeing more cases than ever. And that might have been part of the problem. In a statement, the Tennessee Department of Health says “extremely high volume” has resulted in intermittent backlogs, and that the problem is not unique to Tennessee. The same disease surveillance system is used by other states to help with public health investigations.
The system came back online Sunday, but the unplanned shutdown means metro health departments will have inaccurate counts starting the week. The issues may delay contact tracing related to newly diagnosed cases.
In the past month, Tennessee has doubled its “active” cases, meaning more people than ever have the coronavirus right now.
High counts in recent days have accelerated a trend that began in mid-May. It includes the one-day record, on Friday, when more than 1,400 new cases were confirmed.
Health officials attribute much of the spread to community transmission.
New hospitalizations have also shot up, and last week was the state’s deadliest.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM