San Antonio: Metro Health To Separate Current Cases And Deaths From Backlogged Cases And Deaths Older Than 14 Days

Press release from the City of San Antonio:

September 4, 2020

SAN ANTONIO (September 4, 2020) — Starting Sunday, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) will streamline its COVID-19 data by reporting only current new cases and deaths on a daily basis and reporting all cases and deaths older than 14 days on a weekly basis. Recently, the Texas Department of State Health Services provided local health departments with the following guidance:

So that state and local COVID-19 data will most accurately reflect the current situation in your community, we encourage you to report cases arising from older testing as backlogged cases, and more recent cases as new. This will help us ensure that estimates of active and recovered patients are as accurate as possible.

Metro Health will report backlogged cases in aggregate every Sunday at 7:00 p.m. on covid19.sanantonio.gov. Demographic data of backlogged cases and deaths will also be reported on the City’s COVID-19 website on Sunday night, along with whether those cases are associated with congregate settings.

“The public relies on our daily updates to understand the current extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in our community, and the inclusion of past cases and deaths confuses this,” said Assistant City Manager and Interim Metro Health Director Dr. Colleen Bridger. “We want to make sure the public gets up-to-date information from these daily reports so they can best determine how to reduce their risk.”

The State provides Metro Health with death information obtained from death certificates and other sources, which Metro Health then investigates to confirm whether the deaths are COVID-19-related.

FOUR WAYS TO SIGN UP FOR COVID-19 ALERTS

1. Download the Ready South Texas app, available in the iTunes and Google Play stores
2. Text COSAGOV to 55000 to receive SMS text message updates
3. Follow @COSAGOV on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
4. Bookmark covid19.sanantonio.gov

This press release was produced by the City of San Antonio. The views expressed here are the author’s own.