Covid data collection slows in Butte County and elsewhere Older data will make it harder to track trends, Hammond says

photo courtesy of Christian Hammond, who used Butte County Public Health data for his Covid-tracking database.

by Natalie Hanson
posted Nov. 17

During the past few months, Butte County -– like many California counties — has scaled down its local COVID data collection process.

The change comes after two years of maintaining a database displayed on the Public Health Department website that was based on data gathered daily from local medical service providers.

Now the county is relying on state data that is updated only once per week -– and that worries data wizards like Christian Hammond. Hammond, who runs the Unofficial Butte County COVID-19 Dashboard -– separate from the dashboard managed by public health –- said only getting updated data weekly will further impede what is already a slow, flawed way to study the novel coronavirus. read more