WASHINGTON CO. ADDS OVER 1,400 CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES DUE TO BACKLOGGED DATA

  

A backlog of state COVID-19 data resulted in the addition of over 1,400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Washington County on Monday.

After reporting 1,322 confirmed cases as of Sunday, Monday’s data from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reports the county has 2,738 confirmed cases.  Monday’s numbers also show an increase in estimated active cases to 828, compared to 129 on Sunday.

Washington County Health Authority Dr. William Loesch said this increase was due to a “lack of manpower” that led to the number of cases in December and January being “way underestimated.”  However, he cautioned that this does not mean there has been an increase in new cases, and that this is not a cause for alarm.  He added that he believes many of the positive tests were from people out of the county.

The increase in numbers also applied to probable cases and estimated recoveries.  Probable cases increased to 567 on Monday from 448 on Sunday, while recoveries jumped to 2,404 from 1,568.  The number of deaths remained the same at 73.

The Washington County Office of Emergency Management warned of this increase last week, saying county officials were notified late Thursday that Region 7 of DSHS had been having issues with its internal COVID-19 database.

The DSHS website says Region 7 reported a large number of new and older cases Monday due to “ongoing data entry and data cleaning efforts.”  According to the update, Washington County reported 951 older confirmed cases and 80 older probable cases on Monday.

The state allocated another 4,000 vaccines to the Regional Vaccination subHUB at the Washington County Expo this week, with vaccine appointments starting today (Tuesday).  Online pre-registration is no longer accepting new forms, as it automatically closed when 5,000 people pre-registered.