Explaining Utah’s COVID-19 ’test positivity rate’ — and why it’s alarming

One of the most watched — and often most alarming — statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic is the test positivity rate.It’s a seemingly simple metric: Out of all the COVID-19 tests processed, how many of them come back positive?But it’s more complicated, as some amateur data analysts have discovered.For example, the Utah Department of Health reported Sunday that the rolling seven-day average for the test positivity rate was 29.7%. (Public health officials use seven-day a