By: Travis Merideth
Posted: 07/31/2020 8:12pm – Updated 8/3/2020 7:40pm – Updated 8/4/2020 1:00pm

On 7/30 Governor Mike DeWine tweeted: Today’s 1,733 new cases reported is the highest daily count we have ever reported. This is not good news.

Today’s 1,733 new cases reported is the highest daily count we have ever reported. This is not good news. pic.twitter.com/YyMCQOGrPp

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) July 30, 2020

Early in the morning my mother called me in a panic from Nebraska because she heard on the news that Ohio had 1,733 new cases over the previous 24 hours. I did a little searching and found these results on Google from numerous mainstream news outlets.

I decided to complete a little research for myself to determine the accuracy of the statement, and to hopefully get my mother to stop panicking. I went to the Ohio Coronavirus dashboard to search for myself. The dashboard does offer the option to download raw summary data that is regularly updated, this is in the form of a CSV file.

I sorted the data by date, and then used a sumif query to determine the case count by Onset Date for July 29th. Rather than 1733, the case count based on the raw data was only 215. Governor DeWine’s statement was the past 24 hours, so I decided to add in both the 28th and 29th to see if that was where the discrepancy was generated. July 28th data showed 497 cases, so adding 497+215=1,733……OK, that’s not right!

In reading Governor DeWine’s post again I think I figured out the issue. The category where 1,733 cases is displayed is “Last 24 Hour Reported Cases Change”. This leads me to the conclusion that the 1,733 New Cases number was not actually cases that were reported with an Onset Date during the past 24 hours, but new cases that were added to the system from a much larger date range of Onset Dates. Does this mean that cases from March and every other month that COVID-19 existed could be lumped into the 1,733 number Governor DeWine reported as “Today’s 1,733 new cases reported”?

Prior to publishing this story I contacted the office of Governor Mike DeWine and asked several questions. I am waiting for a response from his office and will publish it upon receipt.

Just for fun, I calculated the number of cases for several other dates based on July 31st data, see below:

7/29 215, 7/28 497, 7/27 746, 7/26 421, 7/25 536, 7/24 956, 7/23 107, 87/9 1406, 7/5 965, 7/4 731, 7/3 908, 7/2 1085, 7/1 1279, 6/30 1312, 6/29 1239, 6/28 815, 6/27 801, 6/26 1000, 6/25 993, 6/24 1058, 6/23 1028, 6/22 1096, 6/21 571, 6/20 597, 6/19 681, 6/18 654, 6/17 667, 6/16 659, 6/15 670, 6/14 361, 6/13 567, 6/12 485, 6/11 403, 6/10 396, 6/9 415, 6/8 416, 6/7 239, 6/6 302, 6/5 401, 6/4 363, 6/3 388, 6/2 467, 6/1 436, 5/31 231, 5/30 329, 5/29 408, 5/28 459, 5/5 749, 5/4 604, 5/3 357, 4/15 577, 4/14 565, 4/13 507, 4/12 317

In the mean time, STAY SAFE OHIO!

Updated case count for Onset Date July 29th – As of August 3, 2020 (Data downloaded at 7:33pm) the case count is now 998.

Updated case count for Onset Date July 29th – As of August 4, 2020 (Data downloaded at 12:53pm) the case count is now 830

Also to note: Governor DeWine has not yet responded to our letter at this time.

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