Brazos County Health District, which includes new data from COVID-19 cases

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Starting Wednesday, the Brazos County Health District will begin reporting the “gross” number of positive COVID-19 cases.

Previously, the health district has only reported cases that have been investigated. An investigation determines things like age and demographic population and is also how the cases are brought into contact.

The daily “raw” number will be the total number of positive cases the health district has received but has not yet been investigated or confirmed.

On Wednesday, 130 cases were confirmed by the health district with 1,770 tests (gross cases) still awaiting investigation.

Seth Sullivan, Brazos County Health Authority, says about 300 cases are investigated daily and they want the community to be alert.

“This is unconventional for a public health agency because we like to confirm what we post, that we are accurate,” Sullivan said. “We try to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t allow for that level of accuracy right now, so we’ve decided based on that. That’s the best way to communicate what the situation is.”

According to the state board, just over 367,000 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Brazos County.

During this latest increase, more testing is being done, especially with Texas A&M forcing students and staff to take the test next week. While we can expect more positive cases to be reported due to the increase in evidence, Sullivan claims that it is the Delta variant that causes high positivity rates.

“Unfortunately, the Delta variant is much more transmissible than the previous variant and we have seen that in our community and we have seen that in our hospital, affecting our hospitals, we have talked at length about our occupation like them. The ICUs are so busy. as they are, ”Sullivan said.

Brazos County reports a positivity rate of 8.34 percent. Texas A&M reported a positivity rate of just 2.7 percent on Tuesday.

Sullivan also addressed the discrepancies between deaths reported by the state and deaths reported by the health district.

The state dashboard reports 294 deaths in Brazos County, while the health district has only 275.

Sullivan says that since the beginning of the pandemic, they have worked to keep those numbers on track. However, if an agency reports the death directly to the state before reporting it to the county, the health district takes time to collect and reflect that data.

“We need to figure out where that number is different, and unfortunately it takes longer than we would sometimes like to get that information, so we continue to work on that and make that number,” Sullivan said.

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