LISBON — A Columbiana County Health District spokesperson said nursing home COVID-19 data reported on the Ohio Department of Health website did not get updated for at least one week last month.

Laura Fauss, public information officer for the Columbiana County Health District, said she spoke with an epidemiologist with the health district and learned the ODH reported incorrect data at least one time. It apparently happened from a data-entry issue associated with the state’s Ohio Disease Reporting System, she said.

The ODH pulls data from the ODRS to publish on the “dashboard” of its website.

Fauss said she was unable to learn how long the issue persisted, but it has now been fixed, and the data reported last week was correct.

Fauss said the epidemiologist entered the data into the reporting system, but for unknown reasons, when the Ohio Department of Health pulled the information from the database, the data was incorrect.

Melanie Amato, ODH spokesperson, said in an email last Friday that the Columbiana County Health District reports the data to the state, and the state in turn reports it to the public. “We use the information they provide to update the dashboard,” Amato said.

“There was a miscommunication between the local health department and ODH that has since been fixed, and the cases are now accurate and updated,” Amato stated in an email.

The Vindicator asked Fauss and Amato about the data the first time Sept. 21 after observing that the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Columbiana County nursing homes were exactly the same two weeks in a row.

That information did not seem possible because the data listed 70 cases among patients and staff at four facilities at the time, yet the exact same numbers were being reported two weeks in a row.

The Vindicator did not report the apparently incorrect numbers that week in order to avoid confusion.

By comparison, last week, after the data was corrected, the ODH website listed only 11 cases for one Columbiana County nursing home. It was the Brookdale Salem Nursing Home, which had never appeared on the list before.

The four facilities reported as having at least three cases the week before no longer appeared on last week’s list.

erunyan@tribtoday.com