The Trump administration is instructing hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in reporting their COVID-19 data to the government each day, effective Wednesday. “As of July 15, 2020, hospitals should no longer report the Covid-19 information in this document to the National Healthcare Safety Network site,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a document providing guidelines for hospitals on how to submit coronavirus data. The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) site is managed by the CDC. The administration says that it’s changing the way data is reported because it’s trying to streamline the process, stating that there are “many separate” government entities asking for duplicate information. According to guidance issued by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the federal government will use the data to calculate how resources, treatment and supplies are allocated. The daily data reporting it demands from hospitals will be “the only mechanism” used to make the government’s calculations. In the past it has made “one-time requests for data” for use in determining how treatments like Remdesivir should be distributed. In the document, HHS directs hospitals and health care providers to submit data about their handling of the pandemic every day — including information about patients, the number of beds and ventilators available, and staffing shortages — through a portal on the HHS website that was launched on April 10. “The completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of the data will inform the COVID-19 Task Force decisions on capacity and resource needs to ensure a fully coordinated effort across America,” the document says.