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Dr. Stephanie Silvera, Professor in the Public Health Department, noted that it’s helpful for health departments to get information from home COVID-19 tests, to have an idea of how many more positive cases are out in the community. She said some of those individuals will end up in a hospital, so it is good to be able to anticipate how many people may be coming.

However, she also said local public health departments have limited resources to collect data, which in itself is a problem.

“It’s unfortunate that there has to be a trade-off in understanding the demographics and the true prevalence of the disease in different communities, versus being able to address the really acute pressing needs of hospitalizations.”