Tarrant County coronavirus metrics stay low but officials warn of West Nile outbreak
While Tarrant County continues to see backlogged cases being added to its coronavirus totals, county officials say that won’t affect the county’s downward trend.
On Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, the county added a combined 1,728 cases from test specimens collected over a month ago, due to an electronic lab report backlog from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The county on Tuesday reported a total of 38,476 COVID-19 cases, including 462 deaths and an estimated 30,692 recoveries.
While on the surface it seems there is a massive surge in cases, the county’s epidemic curve continues to trend downward, Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director, said after Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting.
On top of that, the number of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients continues to decline, with 7% of all beds occupied by such patients Tuesday. That’s a decrease from about 13% a month ago, Taneja told commissioners.
Taneja said what is frustrating about the backlogged data from a month ago is that contact tracing can’t be done. The public health department may also not know what the complete picture of the virus is if data is incomplete.
“We are worried that what we don’t know might come back and bite us,” he said. “We had no idea this was an issue.”
During the meeting, Commissioner Roy Brooks said the case dumps that have been occurring don’t allow the county to do its job of tracking the coronavirus in the community.
“The state needs to get its act together and act as a responsible collector of data and report it in a timely fashion,” Brooks said.
The state has since upgraded to new software to deal with the volume of tests being processed, Taneja said.
County Judge Glen Whitley said while he felt frustrated with the backlog, it’s good news that the Tarrant County case numbers and trends continue to stay low. But, he’s reluctant to be too positive because last time numbers were low, people got relaxed and cases went up.
Whitley urged the public to continue wearing a mask, maintaining social distance and washing their hands, especially with Labor Day coming up, when officials expect a spike.
WEST NILE
Taneja warned the Commissioners Court that if the county’s mosquito positivity rate doesn’t lower, there could be a West Nile virus outbreak on the horizon.
Currently, 35% of mosquito pools are testing positive for the virus in the county and 50% of mosquito pools tested in northeast Tarrant County are positive. Both numbers are too high and they translate to more human cases, Taneja said.
The county is worried about under-reporting in West Nile human cases because some people may test negative for COVID-19 and not decide to be tested for West Nile.
Last week, Taneja told the Commissioners Court there were only two human cases, one that resulted in death. Now, the county has added seven more human cases and Taneja has seen the virus causing a neuroinvasive disease, which can have a long-lasting effect on a person’s neurological system.
Taneja advises people to spray their backyards, wear long sleeves and use anti-bug spray on themselves.
Cities have been doing ground spraying and the county is in early talks on a possible aerial spraying, Taneja said. The positivity rate and human cases meet the requirements of an aerial spraying, but the county will speak with city leaders first. Then the Commissioners Court would vote on either moving forward or not with it.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 4:52 PM.
