By Spencer Custodio | 2 hours ago

State health officials stand by their decision to remove Orange County from the coronavirus watchlist, despite up to a week delay on virus tests turnaround that could affect some key metrics. 

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Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, expressed confidence in the data review process that removed OC from the watchlist. 

“So you know, within a great deal of contact with the counties, including Orange County, these conversations have given us a degree of confidence that the way we’re reporting and working with counties is appropriate,” Ghaly said at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Wednesday news conference. 

Counties across the state were placed on the watchlist for worsening virus trends, like more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period, testing positivity rates greater than 8 percent over a seven-day period, or increasing hospitalization rates. 

Yet, earlier in the news conference, Newsom said the state testing sites have an average of a five-to-seven day turnaround time. 

According to a state list of testing sites, OC has five state testing sites spread throughout Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Habra and San Clemente. 

The county was removed from the watchlist Sunday because its number of newly infected people fell short of 100 per 100,000 residents over a two week period. To account for a delay in testing turnaround times, the state calls for a three-day lag to calculate that rate. 

For example, Wednesday’s number of newly infected people per 100,000 residents would stretch two weeks back beginning Aug. 22. 

But the average delay for testing turnaround times at state sites is five to seven days, which could impact the rate of newly infected people. 

“I want to be careful in the response. Let me ask Dr. Ghaly to come back up and he can talk more learnedly about what that delay may or may not have done as it relates to that monitoring list — that watchlist — and where particularly Orange County has been in that space,” Newsom said in response to Voice of OC’s question. 

“Indeed, Orange County, all of the counties across the state, have experienced delays,” Ghaly said. “Sometimes you’ll get the test back in 24 hours or less.”