KERN COUNTY, Calif. (KERO) — Kern Public Health said that because of a data batch update to remove 587 duplicate COVID cases by the state, Kern County had a reduction of 185 new cases. Had the state not run their process to "de-duplicate" cases, the county would have reported 402 new cases, according to Kern Public Health.
Kern County reported seven new deaths. There have been 1,532 deaths reported in Kern since the pandemic started.
The case records were from April 28, 2020 through Sept. 17th.
"It is important to note that de-duplication is a vital part of data reporting and has been conducted by Kern County Public Health since the beginning of the pandemic," said Kern Public Health in a statement. "Our department moved from manual detection to automated detection and launched our computer-aided effort to de-duplicate data in December 2020."
The 587 duplicates removed represent approximately 0.4% of reported cases with only two of these cases from 2021, according to Kern Public Health.
The county's automated data de-duplication searches for the following: more than one record in the same person’s account; same last name and date of birth at the same address; and same first name, last name and date of birth regardless of address or other factors.
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