Backlog leads to more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases added to Dallas County statistics

DALLAS – Dallas County says state-level reporting error is the reason for a large dump of COVID-19 cases late on Sunday.

More than 5,300 cases have now been added to Dallas County’s total cases, but almost all of those cases are from the last month. The county reported 5,631 cases on Sunday, but 166 new actual cases much lower than usual were included in that number.

Due to the error, Dallas County health officials said no contact tracing had been done for more than 5,000 positive cases of COVID-19. The Department of Health expects more arrears to arrive this week.

The county is classifying this issue as a coding error with the new condition reporting system.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins says more than ever people need to continue to wear masks and use social distancing.

“We don’t know if two weeks or three weeks ago the numbers were going down because of this mistake or because they were really going down. What doctors believe is masking is having a positive effect and the numbers are going down, ”Jenkins said.

Dr John Carlo, who is on the Texas Medical Association’s coronavirus task force, said that while Sunday’s actual number is 166 – the lowest since April – that report may also not be accurate.

“If there was a backlog for last month, there might still be a backlog for today, so I would hold back from drawing any conclusions about today’s numbers, especially what we’re hearing about it. ‘backward himself,’ Carlo said. “Nothing changes from this case report, if anything it reinforces the message that we need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

With that backlog, Dallas County’s total number of cases is now over 63,000. Only one death was reported on Sunday.

Tarrant County also experienced a backlog on Saturday and reported 680 new infections and eight deaths on Sunday. Collin and Denton County did not release their numbers on Sunday.