IRVINE, Calif.—We’re always hearing about the number of reported COVID-19 cases, positivity rates, deaths, and other metrics. But how is this information collected and reported? How accurate are these metrics? What do the stats say about how a region is doing overall?
Health officials have acknowledged and fixed data errors in Orange County and California in recent months—but even when data collection and reporting is operating as it should, there are nuances for people to understand.
