PENDER COUNTY — According to Pender County officials, a discrepancy in the total Covid-19 case count — when comparing state-level reports — arose from a backlog of case reports, compounded with the all-hands-on-deck vaccination effort consuming the county’s public health staff. Health and human services director Carolyn Moser said a number of factors contributed to the low count on Pender County’s dashboard, which as of Monday night showed about 600 fewer confirmed cases than the state’s total for the county. Related: The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for alerting counties to instances of positive Covid-19 tests among individuals who may be county residents, Moser said. At that point, counties assume the responsibility to contact-trace the cases. Whenever any test is administered, regardless of whether it’s in a clinic or testing site, the DHHS obtains the results first, and pushes that information down to the counties.