SALEM — State officials don’t trust the data they’ve been providing about Oregon hospitals’ capacity to handle COVID-19 patients, and has stopped providing that information.

In response to requests from elected officials and the news media, the Oregon Health Authority and State Emergency Coordination Center recently began releasing the number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19, as well as such data as the number of available beds and ventilators.

On Thursday, officials stopped providing that information and did not explain why. On Friday, after being asked by journalists, OHA said there were “data quality issues” but declined to give specifics.

Hospitals report occupancy numbers on a daily basis through a statewide database. Legislators were told Sunday that those numbers may sometimes have included patients who appeared to have severe symptoms of COVID-19 but for whom test results had not yet been received.

OHA issued a news release Friday afternoon, saying: “OHA is working with its partner hospitals to improve the COVID-19 data reporting process so we can ensure the accuracy, consistency and timeliness of the underlying data. The state has paused our public reporting so OHA can provide additional technical assistance to hospital staff. OHA will resume public reporting of COVID-19 hospital capacity data as soon as we have achieved full compliance and consistency in data reporting across all sources.”

Since March 9, OHA has required health care providers, facilities and laboratories to report COVID-19 cases and test results. As of Monday, they also were required to report COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.

On Friday, OHA reported 73 new cases of COVID-19 and Oregon’s 22nd death. A 71-year-old man in Polk County had tested positive on March 19 and died April 2 at Salem Hospital. He had underlying medical conditions.

Responding to federal recommendations that all Americans wear masks, OHA reiterated on Friday that the most important prevention was staying home and avoiding non-essential contact with others.

“We continue to stress that medical masks are essential for health care workers who are in close contact with someone who has COVID-19,” said Paul Cieslak, OHA’s medical director for communicable diseases. “We need to preserve supplies of medical masks for our health care workers so they can stay safe as they work to keep all of us healthy. For the general public, homemade fabric masks, especially if well-made and well-fitting, may provide some benefit.

“The data do not tell us how much protection homemade cloth masks provide to the person wearing a homemade mask. For this reason, homemade and fabric masks should not be considered reliable protection; but they may provide some benefit.”

However, a fabric mask worn by an infected person can help prevent the spread of coronavirus to others. If nothing else, according to some health professionals, a mask of any sort may remind wearers not to touch their face with unwashed hands and potentially infect themselves.