“...She noted the error doesn’t affect data on key metrics such as the number of confirmed cases and deaths....”
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How could double counting of tests not have affected the “confirmed case” counts since a number of the double counted tests would have been positive result tests which is their definition of a “case”.
Indeed. Not only, but when testing is done without recording names and addresses and checked against a database to prevent duplicates, then every-time a person tests positive then it can be added to the total. Even though it is denied this is happening, how can it not be? Also, the NYT reported
As it tracks the coronavirus’s spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is combining tests that detect active infection with those that detect recovery from Covid-19 — a system that muddies the picture of the pandemic but raises the percentage of Americans tested... Now that serology tests, which look for antibodies in the blood of people who have recovered, are more widespread, C.D.C. officials said Friday they would work to separate them from the results of diagnostic tests, which detect active infection. One of the agency’s data tracker websites has been lumping them together... And patients who have had both diagnostic and serology tests would be counted twice in the totals. - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/coronavirus-tests-cdc.html