“Updates to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ public-facing coronavirus case tracker shed some new light on the number of agency health professionals who have contracted the virus since March.”
“As of Monday, VA is tracking a total of 1,293 coronavirus cases among VHA employees, according to its recently updated national COVID-19 summary tool.”
“Of VA’s 1,293 employee cases, a total of 351 of them are active, while 942 are considered ‘convalescent,’ which the department defines as cases where 14 days have passed since the patient’s last positive test or cases where the patient has been discharged from a VA hospital, whichever comes first.”
“As of April 23, the department had been tracking 1,895 cases among VHA employees, a difference of at least 600 cases between the April figure and today’s totals.”
“The department acknowledged the difference in reporting.”
“’The new site only counts employees who were tested at VA,’ Christina Noel, a department spokeswoman, said in an email to Federal News Network. ‘We found that the previous employee case numbers, which were based on employee self-reports, were likely being duplicated in some cases, which was skewing the numbers high and delaying reporting.’”
“’We’re currently developing a system that will verify employee self-reports to ensure greater accuracy,’ she added.”
“28 VHA employees have died from complications due to the coronavirus, including six at VA’s facility in East Orange, New Jersey, and three each in Indianapolis and Reno, Nevada, according to the department’s latest figures…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA data sheds new light on health employees with coronavirus – By Nicole Ogrysko, May 11, 2020. Federal News Network.
