It means we are hitting the target positivity rate to suppress the virus within Hamilton County. In general, if the black positivity line is falling below the green line then the positivity rate is good. Is it going up, meaning more test results are coming back positive, or down? You can tell the rate of change by looking at how steeply the line is increasing or decreasing. When viewing the chart pay attention to the black line. The black line is the 7 day moving average of the positivity rate (total number of positive test results divided by the total number of negative test results) or the percentage of positive test results. The green part of the bar is the negative test results and the orange part of the bar is the positive test results. This stacked bar chart shows the contribution of Negative Test Results and Positive Test Results to the Total Test Results for each day. Negative Test Results may include non-Hamilton County residents. Positive Test Results include Hamilton County residents only. The goal for a mitigation strategy is to stay below the orange dotted line the goal for a suppression strategy is to stay below the green dotted line. Mitigation and Suppression Goals are derived from Harvard Global Health Institute Key Metrics Framework. The Positivity Rate (7-day moving average) is the percentage of test results that are positive. When Negative Test Results aren't reported daily, Negative Test Results have been averaged over the time periods between reports. In general steep lines going up are bad and steep lines going down are good. Is it going up, meaning hospitalizations are on the rise, or down? You can tell the rate of change by looking at how steeply the line is increasing or decreasing. The black line is the 7 day moving average of the total number of hospitalized individuals or all three patient types. The chart below shows the hospitalizations broken by the following patient types: PUI or persons under investigation for having COVID-19, non-ICU or COVID patients not in the intensive care unit (ICU) and ICU which is COVID patients in the intensive care unit. When hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID patients the outcomes for them can become dire. The number of hospitalizations is an important number to track. Reporting of Hospitalized in ICU - Cases began on. Reporting of Hospitalized - Persons Under Investigation began on. Reporting of Hospitalized - Cases began on. Persons Under Investigation are individuals who are/were under investigation for having COVID-19 on the reporting day. Note: This stacked bar chart shows the contribution of each category to the total number of Hospitalized individuals on each day and includes non-Hamilton County residents who are hospitalized in Hamilton County. Most of the visuals below use this approach to more clearly show the trend. The seven day moving average is just the average number of cases (total number of cases divided by the seven days) over the past seven days. While it sounds complex it is fairly simple. Are the cases increasing or decreasing? How rapidly are cases increasing or decreasing? One way to help remove all the noise from the day to day change is to use the 7 day moving average. How do you make sense of all this day to day changing? When looking at the data it is important to look at the overall trend of the day. On any given day the numbers can change quite dramatically from the previous day. You can view additional visuals and download the data collected from the Health Departments website on this local COVID dashboard run by Jesse Houser. The COVID Risk Score and below visuals all come from the data provided by Hamilton County Health Department. The current COVID Risk Score and criteria are shown at the top of this section. What does the daily numbers mean and how should you interpret them? The Harvard Global Health Initiative has provided a framework for understanding COVID risk and suggests targets for mitigating or suppressing outbreaks. 'Making sense of COVID related data can be confusing.
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