You get recorded as 5 tests; one case. That accurately reflects the situation. You did - in fact - have 5 tests. You are - in fact - one case.
Cases and tests are recorded separately and for exactly the reason you’ve given here: you can have many different COVID-19 tests done, but you’re only one individual. There is a point at which one person can be recorded as multiple cases if they test positive after 3 months of no positive tests. At that point, you’re hit the re-infection lottery (about 1 per 10,000 cases last I saw).
But what I’m saying is those five tests were recorded as five individual tests from the same person. It should have been just the one case but it wasn’t. She went back five times to be tested and each time it was recorded as one test for a total of five tests the hospital billed the gov’t for.
Excellent explanation. Unfortunately, we have a contingent here who are just hopeless. Victims of our schools, I guess. :-(
I wonder what that reinfection lottery is going to look like in another 6 months or so.
The fatalities numbers are improving, although the 7 day average is still a grim number. My wife learned last week that her best friend’s mother-in-law had succumbed to COVID, so, we have a two-fer now, as MY best friend’s Dad was a COVID fatality last year.
Interesting note: One of my wife’s younger friends (38 y/o, I think?) in particular was hospitalized, but never in the ICU, with COVID-19. That was last October, I believe. She still has problems with lung capacity and O2 levels, easily gets fatigued, etc. This seems to be a common problem. Even NBA players who have had COVID report lingering effects. I wonder how many people will survive significant COVID-19 illness, but the damage left will be a new co-morbidity for them...