Just listened to the WH press briefing. Reporters asked about the amount of testing going on. They could not answer. The answer was basically they only know of the number from CDC labs and public health labs. They do not know the number from hospitals and private labs (I think that is just starting and should be minimal? Or hasn’t quite started yet?) They are working on an “IT system” as it was put several times.
I think it is very unfortunate they aren’t collecting this data. How can they have a handle on the situation without these tallies? It’s important for the here and now planning and response but also important to have for historical and study purposes.
If you can’t get a system built right away (and call on the tech industry - they could set it up quickly) then create a simple spreadsheet in the meantime and hire someone to data entry, the old school way.
It shouldn’t be this complicated.