#Walgreens coding error causes underreporting of 59,000 COVID-19 tests

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A Walgreens employee talks with a person in line for COVID-19 testing in Dallas.
Tony Gutierrez/AP

A Walgreens Pharmacy coding error has led to 59,000 coronavirus test results not being reported to health officials across Texas, according to reports.

The Department of State Health Services told 3News that Walgreens has corrected the error, but it remained unclear how many of the test results were positive.

The state agency said it was working to clear a backlog of cases that stemmed from “formatting and coding issues” experienced by Walgreens, as well as Quest Diagnostics and CHRISTUS Meditech, which had problems submitting results, CBS 11 News reported.

Quest told the news outlet that the state replaced a server without informing it.

The lab said it continued sending test results to the old server, not realizing the state wasn’t receiving them, according to CBS 11 News.

“Nobody is more frustrated, I’d think, than I am right now,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told the station.

Cases in the county appeared to be in sharp decline last month, but it learned over the weekend of more than 5,000 previously unreported cases, the outlet reported.

As a result, case numbers appeared to be lower than they were as parents and school districts were contemplating whether to return children to class.

Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine, said having accurate numbers is especially important now.

“I think they’re going to be necessary to make good decisions about whether to open schools,” he told 3News.