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Collin County officials are saying that the state of Texas could be over-counting the number of active COVID-19 cases by four times, which could impact many policies including safety precautions and school measures.
Collin County Judge Chris Hill told WFAA that he has suspected this for a while because of the number difference between state and local coronavirus data. Hill said a large portion of the number of cases may be old, counting people who have already recovered.
"We believe the significant number of cases currently listed as active are recovered now," Hill told WFAA.
Judge Chris Hill
| https://www.collincountytx.gov/
The Texas Department of Health Services has reported 4,363 cases of the coronavirus being active on the state's dashboard, but Collin County officials believe this number is inaccurate. The county said the number of active coronavirus cases is more likely approximately 980 cases, or four times fewer than the state is reporting.
"The state team has acknowledged that they do believe it is grossly overstated and they are going to put resources to the task of getting those cases resolved," Hill told WFAA.
But Collin County still isn't sure why the state's reported numbers are so much higher or what is causing the difference in data. WFAA tried to get in touch with the Texas Department of Health Services but has not heard back.
While Hill wants to see accurate representation in the number of coronavirus cases in the data, he said it is more important for people to remain responsible, healthy and safe and do their best to prevent the spread of the virus.
"It's no longer useful for us to stand up these dashboards every day to look at how many cases we have," he told WFAA.
Collin County doesn't have any coronavirus-related orders or mandates at the moment, but Hill said it is something he continues to consider as the concern for public health grows.
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