The state selected OptumInsight, Inc. to build the new database after a competitive bidding process, according to the California Department of Public Health. The initial $15.3 million contract will span six months, and the new system is scheduled to be up and running in October.
“We are taking meaningful action to update how we collect, analyze and report COVID-19 data, which is central to our ongoing statewide response and the actions local public health directors take every day to protect the health and wellbeing of Californians,” the Department of Public Health’s acting director Sandra Shewry said in a written statement.
The announcement comes about a month after a COVID-19 data glitch blocked hundreds of thousands of test result records from the state’s Reportable Disease Information Exchange, known as CalREDIE.
The glitch kept county officials in the dark for more than a week about how many residents had tested positive, inhibiting them from tracking and curtailing disease spread.
The glitch was caused by a series of human errors and technical problems. The incident exposed how CalREDIE was not equipped to handle a pandemic volume of data, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said.
That won’t be a problem with the new system, Ghaly said.
“This system is built to handle that high volume of test results,” he said during a Tuesday press conference.
Ghaly said the database will be ready at a critical time as the state ramps up COVID-19 testing. Last week, the Newsom administration announced a $1.7 billion contract with diagnostics company PerkinElmer that aims to more than double the state’s testing.
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