News Release
Sept. 14, 2020
The Texas Department of State
Health Services today will begin reporting two additional measures of the
COVID-19 positivity rate, the percentage of tests that are positive in a given
period. The update is the result of DSHS’s work to enhance the state’s COVID-19 data in partnership with the Governor’s
Strike Force.
While DSHS will continue to post
the data in the form Texans are used to, DSHS will primarily rely on the
positivity rate calculated according to when people were tested, the specimen
collection date, which provides the most accurate view of the pandemic’s effect
over time. Because all test results received will be counted by when the test
occurred, the rate for previous days will change as that information becomes
more complete, and it will not be skewed by delays in reporting test results to
the state.
“These enhancements are part of our
continuous effort to improve the information we present,” said Dr. John
Hellerstedt, DSHS commissioner. “As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, so must the data
we share. Our information must provide
the clearest possible picture of what is happening now and what has occurred in
the past. The trends in this and other
data shape our understanding of what to expect in the future.”
As an additional point of
reference, DSHS will post a rate based on when lab results were reported to the
state. Both new methods will use positive and total molecular test results
reported in NEDSS, the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, and be
calculated as a seven-day average. They will also exclude duplicate or other
erroneous lab results. Recent upgrades to NEDSS now allow DSHS to clean up the testing
data more quickly to be used in the positivity calculations.
The state’s legacy positivity rate
used the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases over seven days divided by the
number of new molecular test results over the same seven days. That method
served as a reliable proxy for the overall COVID-19 trend for most of the
pandemic. However, an influx of older test results in August caused new cases
and new test results to get out of sync, leading to large swings in the
positivity rate and the need to reevaluate methods to calculate it.
The positivity rate by specimen
collection date shows a peak in late June and July as Texas saw a dramatic
increase in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the state. The other
methods mirror the same overall trend until diverging when the older test
results began to be reported in August. DSHS will post all three methods for a
time to allow for a continued comparison.
Each day, more than 600 clinical laboratories
and other testing providers, 600 hospitals, 57 local health entities and the
eight DSHS public health regions submit data about COVID-19 to DSHS where it is
quickly analyzed and reported to the public to provide the most up-to-date
information possible. DSHS will continue to work with the Strike Force on
further improvements.
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(News Media Contact: Chris Van Deusen, DSHS Director of Media Relations
)