Abbott has previously said he would consider a positivity rate of above 10% a red flag for spread of the coronavirus in Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When he announced the reopening of Texas in late April, after a month-long shutdown of many businesses, the positivity rate was around 5%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It steadily increased from mid-June through mid-July, reaching a high of 17.4% on July 16, then decreasing to 12% by the end of the month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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But on August 1, the positivity rate began a rapid two-week ascent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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DSHS press officer Lara Anton said the data experts discovered that a computer upgrade performed Aug. 1 meant multiple positives were uploaded to the state\u2019s lab reporting system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The data experts also discovered coding errors from one hospital lab and one commercial lab in the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Once those errors were resolved, tests from those sites were uploaded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The resulting artificially high positivity rate could have been troubling for businesses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Abbott said Thursday the positivity rate needed to \u201cgo back below 10% for a sustained period of time,\u201d before he would consider reopening additional businesses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The positivity rate fell to 16% Thursday and remained there on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The governor also said a decrease in demand for testing across the state has impacted the positivity rate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When only people who feel sick are getting tested, the percentage of positives is likely to be higher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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According to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, most testing sites in the county are seeing fewer people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He said Eastfield College is averaging about 200 tests per day \u2013 far below its 500-test capacity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Capacity at Ellis Davis Field House is 1,000 per day and that hasn\u2019t been met in a while, Jenkins said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Dallas County Director of Health and Human Services Dr. Phillip Huang said he\u2019s not surprised by data processing issues being experienced by public health tracking systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe are still dealing with paper faxes of lab data and lab reports – hundreds of those a day that we\u2019re having to deal with,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe systems have not really been designed to handle this many numbers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an unprecedented situation we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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According to Anton, the state expects the positivity rate to \u201cgenerally be higher until testing demand increases and the backlog of cases smooth out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She did not give a timeline for when that might happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Huang said it is important to focus on trends from multiple data points, like hospitalizations and ER visits as well as the positivity rate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cData shows us what\u2019s going on in our community – the spread, which populations it is affecting, what geographic areas are being most affected – all those things rely on the data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s not going to be perfect data, but we need to get as good clean data as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
___
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