The D.C. health department has not shared data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since April 27 on the number of new coronavirus cases in the District or on any deaths from the virus, as cases inch upward again elsewhere in the region.
The District stopped reporting daily case data on its own website two months ago, saying it was time to treat coronavirus less like an emergency and more like an endemic illness, but it continued providing case counts to the CDC — which makes the data public — on a sporadic but fairly frequent basis. That stopped April 27, and local officials have not answered questions from reporters about why. On Monday, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said the city health department is looking into why its normal practice of reporting numbers to the CDC has stopped. The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Residents who monitor the CDC data to track the prevalence of the virus in their community have grown increasingly frustrated, with many asking D.C. officials where the numbers are.
“It’s a big problem for residents,” said Eric Toner, a Johns Hopkins University expert on public health. “Because the residents have no idea, therefore, how bad the situation is, whether they should be wearing a mask, whether they should be staying at home, whether it’s okay to go to work or the grocery store. Everybody is making these decisions. If you have no data, you have nothing to go on. People are left to make the decision based on whether or not they’re hearing from friends that many people are getting sick.”
Toner said he, too, is left with just anecdotal evidence, including some high-profile public officials whose positive tests have made the news. “It certainly seems like there is a lot of covid going around and I think that people should be cautious. I would not go to a meeting in D.C. right now without wearing a mask,” he said.
Despite halting the reporting of daily case data, the D.C. health department has continued to publish some coronavirus data every Wednesday that includes information on hospital capacity and a rate — though not a specific number — of cases in the city. But this data also has a lag: last week, the data covered the period through the end of April; this Wednesday’s data should include data up through May 7, the D.C. mayor’s office said.
The lack of data in the city comes as cases in neighboring Maryland and Virginia have risen recently, climbing 29 percent in Maryland and 43 percent in Virginia in the past week. Before D.C. stopped reporting case numbers, its case rate stood at 26 new daily cases per 100,000 residents; the recent rises in the neighboring states brings Maryland’s case rate to 21 and Virginia’s to 27.
The D.C. suburbs have the highest rate of the virus in both states, with Montgomery County outpacing all other Maryland jurisdictions, and Arlington and Falls Church reporting the highest case rates in Virginia as of Monday.
The CDC’s guidelines, which assess hospital capacity as well as case counts, characterize the risk in most of the D.C. region as low, meaning the national body would advise that people can go without masks and other precautions in most of their daily activities. The CDC deems Fairfax and Arlington counties to be at medium risk.
Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report.
