Concern about COVID data potentially presented improperly by Governor DeWine

I am currently preparing an article for newsmediaus.com about the Ohio New Cases data recently presented by Governor DeWine. After receiving a panicked phone call from my mother this morning from Nebraska, I decided to research this issue today and what I found was very alarming, especially considering that most major news media outlets are reporting that Ohio has 1733 new COVID 19 cases in the last 24 hours. This certainly presents the appearance that there were 1,733 new cases with an onset date of 7/29! These reports are based on the news conference on 7/30 and Governor DeWine’s twitter post stating that there were 1733 new cases reported.

While this information could technically be considered correct, I am seeking to learn why it was presented in this manner. By technically correct, I mean that it appears that there were 1733 new cases added to the total case count, while there were only 215 cases appearing in the data for Onset Date of 7/29. Based on my research of the raw data CSV that is provided on the Ohio Coronavirus Dashboard, It appears that there were only 215 new cases (Onset Date) added on 7/29, and 497 on 7/28. While technically this can be viewed as correct, my fear is that the use of this number may have the appearance of misrepresenting the data to the public during an already emotional time in Ohio and the entire USA. Additionally, it is truly problematic if Governor DeWine is utilizing this inappropriately skewed data to drive policy decisions or if other states utilize this number to drive policy decisions when it comes to Ohio.

Some questions I have for my article:

1) Why is Governor DeWine using this number which appears to be misleading, rather than the actual cases reported by date?

2) Does the 1733 number include all cases for all dates that were reported on 7/29 or is there a reporting period limit? (e.g. if a case or a hundred cases from march were reported with the new data added on 7/29, is it included in this 1733 number that Governor Dewine put in his New Cases Reported Today Tweet)

3) Is this number used in Policy decisions?

4) Are my assumptions correct? if not please clear it up so that I can put the correct information in my article.

5) If my assumptions are correct and it is simply a mistake, would Governor DeWine be willing to provide a statement for my article to clear this data use error up with the public?

The data I utilized and sorted on the morning of 7/31 is located at: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/static/COVIDSummaryData.csv

Best regards,

Travis Merideth

News Media U.S.

newsmediaus.com