Arizona is tossing out nearly a quarter of its COVID test results -- because they arrived by fax: report

Writing for the Arizona Republic this Tuesday, Laurie Roberts says that while it's bad enough that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has allowed state officials to dictate when it's safe to reopen schools according to certain benchmarks, it's now known that one of those benchmark might not even be accurate.

Citing a previous report from the Arizona Republic, Roberts says the state is tossing out almost a quarter of documented coronavirus positive test results "when calculating the percentage of Arizonans" who've tested positive for coronavirus.

"This, because labs are faxing in the test results rather than transmitting them electronically," Robert writes, adding that it's apparently "just too big of a hassle to enter the numbers into a computer."

According to some, DHS could be skewing Arizona's numbers by "ignoring results that come in from labs that are not hooked electronically into state’s reporting system," Roberts writes.

This creates a problem, since the state is using "percent positivity" to influence guidelines on schools reopening.

"The good news is everyone agrees that the state’s positivity rate is declining," writes Roberts. "The bad news? We have no idea what it really is and thus no clue the true spread of the disease right now."

Read the full article over at the Arizona Republic.