BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — The lab accused by the Florida Department of Health of “double reporting” test results says the accusation is false. Helix Labs has provided the following statement which we are publishing in its entirety:
[OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM HELIX LABS]
Over the weekend, the Florida Department of Health announced that its daily COVID-19 report would be delayed due to 400,000 previously-reported COVID-19 test results being resubmitted by Helix. As the Department of Health noted in their updated statement yesterday, however, Helix submitted results in accordance with the Florida Statute and DOH procedures and was not at fault for this incident. On the day in question, we submitted approximately 3,000 reports, in line with our testing volumes from that day. As far as we can tell, our transmission was normal. Due to an unforeseen technical issue not caused by Helix, however, previously reported historical data was repeated. We continue to work with the Department of Health to understand exactly what happened and why our historical data was impacted.
We remain committed to providing accurate, rapid and reliable COVID-19 testing to the residents of Florida and working closely with the Florida Department of Public Health in the fight against COVID-19 to ensure access to accurate and reliable data.
Informational Notice
Recent Delay in Daily COVID-19 Reporting Driven by Technical Issue
Commercial Lab Submitted Results in Accordance with Florida Statute and DOH Procedures
The Florida Department of Health announced Saturday that our daily COVID-19 data and surveillance reports would be delayed until Sunday due to the overnight submission of what appeared to be approximately 400,000 previously reported COVID-19 test results by Helix, a private laboratory.
Helix’s submission was significantly lower than 400,000. An unforeseen technical issue resulted in the data’s repeated replication.
This was not the fault of Helix or the Department of Health. We are working with technical experts to ensure this does not happen with subsequent data submissions.
State epidemiologists quickly noticed the error and took immediate action, reviewing and deduplicating all 400,000 individual results within 24 hours and eliminating any potential impact to the Department’s statewide efforts in contact tracing. The swift response by Department staff and ready support from Helix ensured a complete and speedy resolution; none of the replicated test results have been included in subsequent daily reports.
All reported information representing past test numbers, case counts, and positivity rates remains accurate and unaffected by replicated data and there has been no delay to the return of test results to individuals or health care providers.
