KARE 11 receives a steady stream of messages every day asking questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, the way it's tracked and how cases are reported. The VERIFY team is always working to answer those questions. Here's an inquiry we just got about the way positive tests are counted in Minnesota.
THE QUESTION
Yvette asked us,
If you test positive for COVID 19, then go back to be tested again to see if you are cleared of COVID. Are you in added to the daily COVID statistics again? So if a person goes back 3 times are each and every test added to the daily COVID stats?
THE ANSWER:
No. Their positive tests would be added to the total number of tests performed in Minnesota, but not to the total number of cases - unless those tests were more than 3 months apart.
WHAT WE FOUND:
We reached out to Doug Schultz with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) with this question. He told us that while positive tests and confirmed COVID-19 cases are both tracked, they're done separately.
If a person were to get tested twice and test positive twice, those tests would both be tallied in the MDH count of tests performed nationwide. One of the purposes of this tracking is to measure the state's testing capacity, and show health officials how accurate of a picture they have of COVID-19 spread across the state.
However, a person who gets two positive tests is not counted as two separate cases. They would only be entered into the daily "new cases" count once - unless they got those tests more than three months apart, per guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
LEARN MORE:
MDH updates its daily tallies online here, where you can see how many tests are performed every day, and how many new cases are counted.
The state also keeps data dashboards updated showing Minnesota's levels of critical care supplies and other key figures health officials are watching to determine whether to loosen or increase restrictions.
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