Ezike Explains COVID Data Information

The Illinois Department of Public Health is combining two different types of positive COVID-19 results into one data set.

IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says the State has a batch of antigen tests, that she said are only slightly less accurate than PCR tests.

It was explained that if you test positive from a PCR test you have a confirmed result. If you test positive from an antigen test you are listed as probable. 

Until this past week, those figures had been compiled separately. Ezike said that practice is changing.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed the guidelines to allow for those two types of test results to be combined into one data set. Often, if you test positive with an antigen test, you will go back for PCR testing. If that is the case, Ezike says your case would only wind up being counted once in the state's totals.