(C) Texas Tribune This story was first published on Texas Tribune.org[1] -------------------- On average, more than 270 people in Texas died from COVID-19 every day in the last month ['Texas Tribune Staff'] Date: 2020-04-14 20:00:00+00:00 These numbers come from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which typically updates statewide case counts by 4 p.m. each day. In order to publish data quickly, the state has to bypass what is normally a monthslong process of reviewing infectious disease data and performing quality checks before publishing. That’s why all of these numbers and information are provisional and subject to change. The state’s data includes cases from federal immigration detention centers, federal prisons and starting in mid-May, state prisons. It does not include cases or vaccinations reported at military bases. Total population counts for the state and its counties are from the 2020 U.S. census. The state’s population by race, ethnicity and age group are from the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2019 population estimates. Notes about the data: On March 24, 2020, the state changed how it reported numbers resulting in a sharp increase in cases. Antibody tests were included in the new total tests counts for each day before May 14. Previously, the state had counted about 50,000 total antibody tests as virus tests, artificially deflating the positivity rate. After a system upgrade on June 7 resulting in incomplete test data, the state revised the test numbers for June 6 to show a decrease in total viral tests. The testing numbers for June 6 are not shown in the test results by day chart. On June 16, the state included 1,476 cases previously reported by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from Anderson and Brazoria counties in its cumulative case count. The new cases for June 16 do not include those cases. On July 17, the state received about 5,268 additional cases from Bexar County. The state only included 608 of those cases as new confirmed cases for that day and added the rest to the cumulative count. On July 19, the state removed 3,676 duplicate antibody tests from the previous day’s total. From July 23 to July 28, between 9% and 18% of hospitals reported incomplete hospitalization numbers due to changes in reporting to meet federal requirements. On July 25, the state removed 2,092 probable cases from the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District that had been previously included in the cumulative case count. On July 27, the state began reporting deaths based on death certificates that state COVID-19 as the cause of death. On that day, more than 400 previously unreported deaths were added to the total death toll due to the reporting change. On July 30, the state said an “automation error” caused approximately 225 deaths to be incorrectly added to the overall death count; a subsequent quality check revealed COVID-19 was not the direct cause of death in these cases. We updated the cumulative numbers for July 27-29 to account for this error. The automation error also caused us to incorrectly state the percentage of Hispanics who have died of COVID-19 and the number of previously unreported deaths on July 27. These have been corrected. On Aug. 3, the state removed 536 duplicate confirmed cases from the overall cases count for Bexar County. Bexar County reported 471 new confirmed cases on this date. On Aug. 7, DSHS started dividing viral tests into molecular and antigen tests on their site. We’ve combined the two to come up with the total number of viral tests. On Aug. 7, DSHS reported that some molecular tests had been miscoded, inflating the number of antibody tests over the previous couple of days. This was corrected, resulting in the number of antibody tests to decline from the 6th to the 7th. Because a breakdown of these tests is not available, the charts are showing the inflated numbers on those days. On Aug. 10, the number of new cases reported did not include new cases from Nueces County due to a “large backlog of positive lab reports” that the county was working through. In mid-August, several labs submitted large backlogs of tests to the state, which could not have been added until coding errors were fixed and a system update was complete. Because of this, the state reported a record number of tests on Aug. 13. Of those 124,000 tests, approximately 95,000 were from one lab serving several hospitals. At the same time, DSHS started reporting backlogged cases during their daily updates. They are listed, by month, on the DSHS site. In all instances, these cases were added to the cumulative statewide total, as well as the cumulative count for the county listed on their site. They were not added to the new cases reported for the state that day. In December, DSHS also began reporting backlogged probable cases when it started reporting probable cases statewide. As of Aug. 9, 2021, we have stopped listing the backlogs on our site. Instead, you can view them on the DSHS site. On Aug. 24, 2020, the state was unable to update its testing numbers because of a power outage affecting multiple state agencies. The numbers, however, were added retroactively. On Sept. 9, TDCJ reported 453 fewer cases among inmates in a state prison in Walker County. These were removed from the county’s total case count, as well as the statewide total. On Sept. 12, the state said a data entry error caused 91 cases to be incorrectly added to the Sept. 11 statewide and Colorado County total case counts. We updated the cumulative numbers for Sept. 11 to account for this error. On Sept. 14, DSHS began publishing a new version of the state’s positivity rate, which takes into account the date a test was administered. Previously, the state’s rate relied on the date a test was reported to health officials and verified as a case, which sometimes caused the rate to swing wildly after officials input large numbers of older, backlogged test results. The positivity rate calculation change revealed that the figure was higher in the spring than originally disclosed. The same day, the state started deduplicating their test results, causing a drop in overall tests. This made the seven-day average of tests incalculable for one week. Also on Sept. 14, Lamar County overstated their case count by 41 cases. These were removed on Sept. 15. The statewide cumulative case count was also adjusted to reflect this change. On Sept. 16, case counts decreased in 12 counties. TDCJ reported reduced case counts in Bee and La Salle counties. Cases were deduplicated in Calhoun, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Kerr, Lavaca, Orange, Roberts and Wharton counties. Shackelford and Swisher counties saw decreases after updating case information. On Sept. 17, case counts decreased in 13 counties. TDCJ reported reduced case counts in Bee, Childress, Houston, Karnes, Madison and Walker counties. Cases were deduplicated in Bandera, Kendall, Titus and Zavala counties. Archer, Swisher and Yoakum counties saw decreases after updating case information. On Sept. 18, case counts from TDCJ decreased in Anderson County by 1,070, which decreased the total number of cases for that county. Most of these cases were added back on Sept. 21. Also, TDCJ reported reduced case counts in Duval, Fannin, Grimes and Liberty counties. Bailey County saw a decrease after updating case information. On Oct. 16, El Paso reported 1,555 new cases, which included cases from Oct. 15 and Oct. 16. The county previously did not report any new cases on Oct. 15. On Oct. 20, some counties could not update their case counts because of an issue assigning cases to the correct jurisdiction in Texas Health Trace, an online system for contact tracing. These were added on Oct. 21. On Oct. 29, the state removed 273 probable cases from Hays County that had been previously included in the cumulative case count. On Oct. 30, the state removed 120 positive antigen cases from several counties that had been previously included in the cumulative case count. On Oct. 31, the state removed 25 duplicate cases from several counties that had been previously included in the cumulative case count. On Nov. 6, the state adjusted statewide and El Paso County cases after 1,563 cases that should have been reported Nov. 2 and 3 were instead reported Nov. 4. On Nov. 9, the state removed 2,363 probable cases from Bexar County that had been previously included in the cumulative case count. On Nov. 11, the state removed 260 overreported cases from Brazoria County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count. On Nov. 14, the state removed 108 overreported cases from McCulloch County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count. On Nov. 14, older cases were incorrectly added to the daily case counts in the following counties: Atascosa, Bandera, Calhoun, Dimmit, Frio, Gillespie, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Jackson, Kendall, Kerr, Lavaca, Medina, Wilson and Zavala. The statewide new case count for that day was adjusted on Nov. 16. On Nov. 16, the state was unable to update its testing data because of technical difficulties. The issue was resolved, and testing data reported for that date includes laboratory tests from both Nov. 15 and 16. On Nov. 18, the state removed 2 overreported cases from Loving County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count for Nov. 17. On Nov. 27, the state removed 87 duplicate cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count in the following counties: Concho, Mason, McCulloch and Winkler. On Dec. 1, the state removed 270 overreported cases from Galveston County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count for Nov. 30. On Dec. 4, the state removed 112 cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 2/3 due to incorrect addresses. The state also removed 33 cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 9/10 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Dec. 5, the state removed 30 cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 9/10 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Dec. 8, the state removed 1,228 probable cases from Lamar County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count. Those counts only include confirmed cases. On Dec. 9, the state removed 8 overreported cases from Pecos County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative count for Dec. 8. On Dec. 10, the state removed 88 cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 9/10 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Dec. 11, the state removed 96 cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 9/10 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Dec. 14, the state removed 14 confirmed cases and 258 probable cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 9/10 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Dec. 17, the state removed 14,220 probable and suspected cases that were previously included in the confirmed cases total. On Dec. 30, the state added roughly 80,000 backlogged antibody tests from Carter BloodCare. On Jan. 14, 2021, the state removed 1,403 overreported cases from Henderson County’s total case count for Jan. 13. The state also added 142 cases back to Fannin County’s total case count for Jan. 13 that were accidentally not included. This led to an adjustment of the total statewide count. On Jan. 17, the state removed 1,632 probable cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 4/5 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Jan. 20, the state removed 82 confirmed cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for Pecos County due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Jan. 30, the state removed 335 confirmed cases from Hays County that had been previously included in the cumulative case count after a routine data audit. On Jan. 31, the state removed 120 overreported cases from Cameron County’s case count for Jan. 30. The statewide cumulative case count was adjusted as well. On Feb. 1, Region 7 reported 12,836 backlogged confirmed cases and 1,244 backlogged probable cases. These are included in the statewide backlog totals. On Feb. 5, the state removed 63 confirmed cases that were previously included in the cumulative case count for counties in Region 7 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Feb. 8, the state removed 555 overreported probable cases from Brazoria County’s case count for Feb. 7. The statewide cumulative case count was adjusted as well. On Feb. 9, the state removed 194 confirmed cases that had been previously included in the cumulative case count for Coryell County in Region 7 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. The state also removed 144 confirmed cases from the county on Feb. 10. On Feb. 15, the counties in Region 8 did not update. Anderson, Angelina, Gregg, Henderson, Jasper, Newton, Polk, Rains, Sabine, San Augustine, Smith, Tyler, Van Zandt, and Wood counties also did not update. On Feb. 16, the state removed 704 probable cases from several counties in Region 11 due to ongoing quality assurance processes. On Feb. 20, the state corrected an error in reporting from Gray County, removing 100 cases. On Feb. 25, the state removed 108 cases erroneously reported by TDCJ from Bee and Duval counties. On Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, the number of confirmed cases for Medina County was overreported by 26 and 20 cases, respectively. On March 1, Bexar County converted 1,843 previously reported probable cases into confirmed cases. On March 2, the state removed 1,119 cases from Scurry County’s cumulative case count that were accidentally added in mid-February because of a reporting error. On March 6, a technical issue caused the state to report fewer total antibody tests than the previous day. On March 17, Region 7 reported two days of COVID-19 numbers. On March 16, they did not update due to technical issues. On March 30, the state removed 1,000 overreported probable cases from Dallas County’s cumulative case count and the statewide cumulative case count. In late March and early April, officials in Orange County removed duplicate cases, causing a drop in both probable and confirmed cases. On April 22, the state reported a low number of tests statewide due to technical issues. The issue was resolved on April 23. On April 26, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center reported the results from 213,923 antibody tests to the state. On April 27, Hunt County added 802 probable cases and removed 417 confirmed cases. On May 4, the state removed duplicate cases from the cumulative case counts for counties in Region 8. A total of 232 confirmed and 133 probable cases were removed. On May 12, TDCJ removed 28 confirmed cases, resulting in decreases in cases in Houston, Johnson, Rusk and Walker counties. On May 18, Brazoria County removed 24 confirmed cases that were erroneously reported or duplicates. TDCJ also reported 15 older confirmed cases in Houston, Johnson, Rusk and Walker counties. On May 24, Hays County removed 41 confirmed cases due to the county’s weekly data audit. On June 5 and 7, several counties in Region 4/5 didn’t report data. On June 6, several counties in Region 1 and Region 8 didn’t report data. On June 9, Bell County and Webb County reported 4,750 probable cases that had previously not been included. These cases were not included in the new probable cases reported for the state on June 9. On June 15, Williamson County removed 329 cases from their cumulative confirmed case count. On June 16 and June 17, Harris County removed 23 and 382 duplicate cases, respectively, from their cumulative confirmed case count. On June 18, Frio County removed 86 confirmed cases from their cumulative case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. Harris County also removed 303 confirmed cases from their cumulative case count. On June 21, Harris County removed 83 cases from their cumulative confirmed case count. On June 22, Jefferson County reported 505 new confirmed cases, but 482 of these cases were older cases. The historical data was revised on July 8. On June 23, counties in Region 8 removed 640 confirmed and 490 probable cases from their counts after a major deduplication effort. On June 24, Harris County removed 170 cases from their cumulative confirmed case count. On June 26, Ellis and Walker counties removed 96 and 37 confirmed cases, respectively, from their case counts. On June 28, Harris County removed 187 duplicate cases from their cumulative confirmed case count. On June 30, Ellis and Walker counties removed 47 and 276 confirmed cases, respectively, from their case counts. On July 2, Ellis and Jones counties removed 35 and 25 confirmed cases, respectively, from their case counts. On July 9, the state removed 52 confirmed cases from Ellis County’s case count due to quality assurance processes. On July 21, July 24 and July 29, the state removed 39, 28 and 12 confirmed cases, respectively, from Anderson County’s case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. On July 28, the state removed 17 duplicate confirmed cases from Orange County’s case count. On July 30, the state removed 180 overreported confirmed cases from Bell County’s case count and the statewide cumulative case count. On Aug. 14, the state reported over 21,000 new confirmed cases due to Bexar County reporting 9,005 new confirmed cases and 1,093 new probable cases after a week of not updating. On Aug. 17, Bexar County removed 432 new probable cases from their cumulative probable case count. On Aug. 19, the state removed 540 confirmed cases from Ector County’s cumulative case count that were misreported because of a typo. On Aug. 22, the state removed 265 confirmed cases from Anderson County’s cumulative case count. On Sept. 9, the state removed 41 confirmed cases from Anderson County’s cumulative case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. On Sept. 11, the state removed 577 confirmed cases from Anderson, Coryell, Fannin, Jones, Pecos, San Saba and Wise counties’ cumulative case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. On Sept. 11, the state removed 54 confirmed cases from Anderson, Houston, San Saba, and Walker counties’ cumulative case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. On Sept. 23, Bell County removed 38 probable cases because of an increase in at-home testing. On Sept. 25 and 26, DSHS did not publish vaccination data as usual while its dashboard underwent changes. On Oct. 6, the state removed 38 confirmed cases from Walker County's cumulative case count due to adjustments from TDCJ. 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