BRYAN, Texas — Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, the Brazos County Health District is adding the “raw” number of positive COVID-19 cases that have been reported to the but have not yet been fully investigated.
This means and includes the fact that the age, race and gender of a case have not been accurately identified.
“It’s clear that we can’t investigate all of these cases and as we review our mission to really communicate transparently the situation in the community,” Health Authority for Brazos County Dr. Seth Sullivan said, “We felt this was best just to release the numbers, at least a raw number to get an appreciation of the cases that are coming into the Health District.”
Dr. Sullivan said the recent rise in COVID-19 cases has been overwhelming, so overwhelming that the staff at the Health District can’t investigate all the cases quickly enough.
To continue to be transparent with the community, Dr. Sullivan said adding the raw numbers to the daily update will continue to show the severity of covid-19 in the area.
“In reviewing this, this is not our protocol, this is not our standard,” Dr. Sullivan said, “As you guys have heard since the very beginning of this, we feel it’s very important to be able to investigate cases, to authenticate that it is a case.”
Dr. Sullivan said the raw numbers that come in, could not be accurate, Dr. Sullivan said they must balance that fact with the other fact being how real the current situation is within Brazos County, which he says is an unconventional approach.
“We try to be as accurate as we can,” Dr. Sullivan said, “Unfortunately, the numbers don’t permit that level of accuracy right now and so we have decided bases on that, this is the best way to communicate what the real situation is.”
Full released statement from the Brazos County Health Department:
Effective September 1, 2021, the Brazos County Health District will be adding an additional number to the COVID-19 Daily Update link on our website. This additional number will include the raw number of positive COVID-19 cases that have been reported to the Health District that is in the process of being investigated. Currently, only cases that have been investigated are being reported each day. The dashboard will continue to include a more detailed account of cases that have been investigated including age, race, and gender. The raw number of cases will not include this information until they are investigated and moved to the appropriate area for final reporting.
Due to the overwhelming number of positive COVID-19 cases that are being reported to BCHD, the current reporting method does not reflect the gravity of COVID-19 in our community. The Health District will continue to be transparent in our efforts to accurately communicate the local impact of COVID-19.