WASHINGTON CO. OEM: LARGE INCREASE IN ACTIVE COVID-19 CASES RESULT OF REPORTING ERROR
CASE NUMBERS SHOULD REFLECT ACCURATE TOTAL TUESDAY
Anyone consulting the state’s COVID-19 dashboard over the weekend may have been surprised to see an abnormally large increase in active cases in Washington County, but local officials say that increase is not accurate.
As of Sunday, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported 515 positive cases, 153 recoveries, 39 deaths, and 323 active cases in Washington County. Those numbers would reflect an addition of 236 active cases and a reduction of 220 recoveries from Friday, but Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Bryan Ruemke said the changes were the result of an error.
According to Ruemke, the DSHS Public Health Region 7 office in Temple made an error in the data it reported to the DSHS office in Austin, who controls the statewide COVID-19 dashboard.
Previous numbers reported by DSHS painted an encouraging picture for the state of cases in the county, with active cases dipping below 90 and recoveries approaching 375 as of Friday.
Ruemke said he has been assured that the dashboard for Washington County will be fixed, but he has been told the numbers on the dashboard will not reflect accurate case numbers until tomorrow (Tuesday). He hopes that tonight’s (Monday) case update will fix the error, but the change may not come until tomorrow night’s update.