05-20-2021, 03:10 PM
(05-20-2021, 02:53 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(05-20-2021, 02:28 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Tomh can confirm this, but I am fairly certain the numbers they are reporting are testing dates. Episode date would result in most cases being added to totals days before. The numbers Tomh reports are mostly day of, but for some reason frequently include backdated corrections.
While episode date has value, over long enough time periods it's equivalent to test date, and more, because symptoms take 2-14 days to appear, it's never particularly accurate in the short term either.
It is worth looking at both, but episode date does not explain the backdated corrections.
Yeah, I have been reporting on test result dates, not episode dates, since the beginning.
Yes, I'm not questioning your data, but the numbers Jeffster was quoting, such as 965 positive tests yesterday, which is IMO a misunderstanding or characterization of the data. 965 is the number of cases reported today with an episode date of 2 days ago (there are a few with a 1-day old episode date as well). See linked spreadsheet from u/enterprisevalue on reddit:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...1190036055&range=D74
This clearly shows the breakdown of cases reported each day by episode date lag.
I agree with your use of the test result data for real-time understanding.