Helix Lab Company Cleared In Florida COVID-19 Data Problem
MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) -- The Florida Department of Health said Monday that a private lab was not at fault for a problem Saturday that delayed the release of statistics about the COVID-19 pandemic.
The department said Saturday that it had received about 400,000 previously reported test results from the Helix laboratory company and that it would need to "de-duplicate hundreds of thousands of results."
After months of releasing daily statistics about the pandemic, the department did not put out a report Saturday, before resuming Sunday.
On Monday, however, the department released a statement clearing Helix of blame for the problems. It said Helix's submission of test results was "significantly lower" than 400,000 and that a technical issue caused the data's repeated replication.
"This was not the fault of Helix or the Department of Health," Monday's statement said. "We are working with technical experts to ensure this does not happen with subsequent data submissions."
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