COLUMBIA, Tenn. (WKRN) — With questions being raised about parts of the state’s COVID-19 numbers, how does that impact decisions about keeping some businesses and schools closed?

The issue keeps creeping up among some of those who make those decisions.

“Around the beginning of June, I began to see an issue with how recovered numbers are being tracked,” Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles told News 2.

Mayor Ogles had to use that data to make decisions about closing or keeping businesses and schools open.

“I would warn people like okay here is what we are showing as active cases, but there is a two to three week lag in the data,” Mayor Ogles said. “I am seeing it over and over again where people are actually going back to work. They have had the virus. They have recovered and yet the state had not contacted them.”

Contacting those who test positive for the virus is a key part of the COVID-19 fight.

The state health department, over the course of the pandemic, has changed how it weighs certain metrics based on evolving CDC and White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations.

In response to what could be inflated active cases, the health department issued a statement Thursday from spokeswoman Shelley Walker:

“The figures for “active” cases are a calculated estimate of COVID-19 disease burden in Tennessee. We encourage jurisdictions to look at their county-level data including the metrics on recent local case trends and percent positivity as a guide to support their local decision making and public health actions. We provide this information daily on our website.

It is worth noting that Tennessee has had more than 178,000 cases confirmed and more than 2.5 million tests reported since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and we are constantly revising, correcting and updating our data as issues are identified, case investigations are completed by our local health department staff members and knowledge of the pandemic evolves.”