MCPH disputes COVID-19 case-counting claim made on Fox News

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Public Health disputed the claim that a resident was counted multiple times in the county's positive coronavirus case tally, according to a press release issued today.

Phil Kerpen, president of the conservative non-profit Committee to Unleash Prosperity, appeared on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show Wednesday night and claimed one COVID-19 case in Mahoning County was counted 15 times, WKBN reported in a story originally headlined, "Mahoning County COVID-19 case count at center of ‘double counts’ report on Fox News."

After the statement, WKBN updated its story and headline.

"The data is being read incorrectly," the MCPH press release stated. "In this incident, 15 people around the same age were tested on the same day and were all confirmed positive, for example, mass testing conducted in a nursing home."

The release explains that both the county and state health departments use the Ohio Disease Reporting System, which is a person-based system. It is designed to flag duplicate entries, and any duplicate entries are corrected, the release explained.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity was founded by Stephen Moore, who is a member of the White House Council to reopen the country.

In an April Washington Post article, he called anti-lockdown protesters "the modern-day Rosa Parks."

This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 1:25 PM with the headline "MCPH disputes COVID-19 case-counting claim made on Fox News."