Virginia Department of Health Releases Disaggregated Testing Data; No Differences in Trends

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 14, 2020
For More Information Contact: Maria Reppas, VDH Communications Director, maria.reppas@vdh.virginia.gov

Virginia Department of Health Releases Disaggregated Testing Data; No Differences in Trends

(RICHMOND, Va.) — The Virginia Department of Health today released testing data broken out by PCR (diagnostic) and antibody (serology) tests. Antibody tests make up less than nine percent of overall tests. When these tests are removed from total results, there is minimal change in the percent positive of tests and no difference in overall trends.

The Virginia Department of Health defines a case as confirmed when there is a positive PCR test.  A goal in monitoring the number of testing encounters and the percent of COVID-19 tests that are positive is to gauge the capacity of the healthcare system to perform COVID-19 testing. In the past three weeks the number of antibody tests being utilized has increased in Virginia. Due to this change, going forward the Virginia Department of Health will provide a breakdown of the COVID-19 test data by all test types and by only PCR tests.