OMAHA Neb AP Nebraska currently appears relatively safe on some national websites tracking the spread of COVID19 but state health officials say those maps arent accurate

The problem is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been using different data for Nebraska since the state retired its website that reported virus figures daily and started reporting updates weekly with fewer details So twothirds of Nebraskas counties shouldnt be colored blue on the CDC map indicating low COVID19 transmission rates at a time when cases are surging statewide the Omaha WorldHerald reported

The color blue on the map may not be an accurate representation of transmission rates said Olga Dack a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

Over the past two weeks the sevenday rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska has nearly doubled from 37414 new cases per day on Aug 6 to 72757 new cases per day on Aug 20 In its mostrecent update the state said Wednesday that 2676 cases had been reported in the previous week which is more than 10 times higher than the 253 cases per week the state reported in late June

The CDC used to rely on Nebraskas daily dashboard for its data but that was retired in late June Dack said officials discovered last week that the federal agency has started using the percentage of positive COVID19 tests for Nebraska counties instead of the per capita case counts it uses for most other states

Dack said the state continues to report countylevel virus data to the CDC but the agency hasnt been using that for some technical reasons

State health officials are trying to find a solution that would allow more accurate Nebraska numbers to be displayed in the future if the CDC approves the change in the states reporting Dack said