MACON, Ga. — We've said since the beginning, our reporting on COVID-19 is about facts, not fear.
Many of you have said: if that's the case, then why not spend more time reporting the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19?
We want to do that--but there's no reliable recovery data in Georgia right now.
Here's why.
First, nobody really knows how many cases of COVID-19 are out there.
Over email, Michael Hokanson with the North Central Health District says they're only tracking lab confirmed cases and there are likely many more people out there who have it but don't get tested, either because they're not showing symptoms or for some other reason.
If you don't really know how many people have it, he says, you can't accurately tell how many people have recovered from it.
On top of that, Hokanson says the NCHD isn't even trying to track that data right now because they've got their hands full with more time-sensitive work-- like tracking known cases and trying to limit their spread to others.
According to Hokanson, that's the case at all Department of Public health sites across the state.
In short, the Georgia DPH isn't releasing this data because they're not tracking it.
Lots of you have said it shows recovery data. And it does... but not in the way you might expect... and not in a way that helps us here in Georgia.
Make no mistake, it's still a tremendous resource. It just doesn't have Georgia-specific data.
The main dashboard shows recovery statistics for the entire United States, but in the fine print, the site says that figure is just an estimate "based on local media reports, and may be substantially lower than the true number."
And according to an email from Johns Hopkins media representative Douglas Donavan, the Hopkins dashboard is not currently reporting any recovery data in any individual US state.
In other words, they don't have Georgia recovery data either.
We want to be able to share this information with you--in an ideal world all we'd report on would be recoveries--but right now at least, we don't have the data to do that accurately here in Georgia.
That doesn't mean we're not going to report on recoveries though. We might not have statewide data or the local data, but we can still tell your individual stories of recovery.
If you've been diagnosed and have recovered and want to share your experience, let us know.
You can direct message us on our facebook page or email us at news@13wmaz.com.
FACTS NOT FEAR | At 13WMAZ, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the coronavirus. To see our full coverage, visit our site section here: www.13wmaz.com/Coronavirus.
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