DOI: 10.3886/e238551v1
title: CDC - Percent Positivity of COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests by HHS Region, National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System

description: More than 450 public health and clinical laboratories located throughout the United States participate in surveillance for severe acute respiratory virus coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, through CDC's National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS). The dataset contains a weekly summary of aggregate counts of the total SARS-CoV-2 tests and SARS-CoV-2 detections reported to NREVSS since March 14, 2020. These data are reported weekly on a voluntary basis. Clinical laboratories do not report demographic data through NREVSS. Testing practices may vary regionally, and the number of participating laboratories may change from year to year. Results can be changed for up to 2 years after the initial reporting week. However, discrepancies may be noted and updated at the discretion of the data stewards and key stakeholders.<br><br>While NREVSS strives to present the most precise estimates of respiratory viral trends with reporting burden minimized for participating laboratories, there are several inherent limitations to this surveillance system.<br><br>NREVSS does not collect patient-specific data or demographic information. Multiple samples may be collected from a single patient, so NREVSS results do not necessarily reflect the number of patients tested, nor do they directly reflect hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19.<br><br>Participating laboratories vary in size, testing capabilities, and areas served. Some institutions may receive and test samples from sites across a given state or even from multiple states. Without direct knowledge of the population base, NREVSS cannot be used to determine the prevalence or incidence of infection.<br><br>For more information on NREVSS and COVID-19 surveillance please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/surveillance/nrevss. These data appear starting May 25, 2023 on the CDC COVID Data Tracker at the following URLs: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends ; https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases.<br><br>NREVSS data are reported at the national and HHS regional levels. The ten (10) U.S. Department of HHS regions are defined here: https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/iea/regional-offices/index.html.<br><br>The data represent SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) results, which include reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests from a voluntary, sentinel network of participating laboratories in the United States, including clinical, public health and commercial laboratories (https://www.cdc.gov/surveillance/nrevss/labs/index.html).<br><br>These data exclude antigen, antibody, and at-home test results.<br><br>All data are provisional and subject to change. Reporting is less complete for the past 1 week, and more complete (&gt;90%) for the period 2 weeks earlier.<br><br>There are data from all states across the 10 HHS regions. Because the data are from a sentinel network of laboratories, however, results may vary geographically. The data do not include all test results within a jurisdiction and therefore do not reflect all SARS-CoV-2 NAATs administered in the United States.<br><br>Percent positivity is one of the surveillance metrics used to monitor COVID-19 transmission over time and by area. Percent positivity is calculated by dividing the number of positive NAATs by the total number of NAATs administered, then multiplying by 100 [(# of positive NAAT tests / total NAAT tests) x 100].<br><br>The data represent laboratory tests performed, not individual (deduplicated) results in people. In the table and upon hovering on the map, the total test counts in the data reflect the latest data reported from NREVSS laboratories and may not match the data presented by various jurisdictions.<br><br>On May 11, 2023, CDC discontinued utilizing the COVID electronic laboratory reporting (CELR) platform as the primary laboratory source of COVID-19 results. These data are archived at health.data.gov.<br><br>For more information about NREVSS, please see: https://www.cdc.gov/surveillance/nrevss/index.html.