Texas Notes

When Texas reports no data, several days of data, or unusual data (such as decreases in values that should increase), our volunteers note it here on the date the anomaly occurred. We also note here changes in our own methodology that affect the data.

The Texas Department of State Health Services regularly includes older cases identified by labs in their cumulative confirmed case counts. As a result, new cases reported may not necessarily have occurred in the past 24 hour period. When these increases are significant, we will specifically mention them in our daily update on Twitter.

On March 6, 2021 through March 7, 2021, Texas announced that due to a technical issue, fewer lab results would be reported. We urge caution when interpreting their testing data for this day.

On March 7, 2021, Texas’ Positive antigen tests (specimens) decreased by 532 without explanation.

On February 21, 2021, Texas’s Positive PCR tests (specimens) decreased by over 10,000 without explanation. Throughout the week, Texas has experienced multiple weather-related issues which have impacted their data reporting. We urge caution when interpreting data from this period.

On February 20, 2021, Texas’s Total PCR tests (specimens) decreased by roughly 85,000 without explanation. Throughout the week, Texas has experienced multiple weather-related issues which have impacted their data reporting. We urge caution when interpreting data from this period.

During the week of February 17, 2021, Texas experienced several weather-related issues and power outages which affected their data reporting. They noted via the official Texas Department of State Health Services Twitter that new cases will be “artificially low” until the reporting resumes normally. On February 15, 2021 through February 18, 2021, they could not update their testing data due to outages. As a result, we were unable to update their testing data on these dates. We urge caution when interpreting data from this period.

On December 29, 2020, Texas noted that “New cases reported today (12/29) may include several days of cases for some counties as some local health departments did not report over the holiday weekend.

As of December 15, 2020, Texas’s total test results are drawn from our totalTestsViral field instead of calculated via positive+negative.

On December 14 2020, we backfilled the full time series of Total PCR tests (specimens), Positive PCR tests (specimens) from data available on Texas ArcGis Layer.

On December 11, 2020, Texas added probable cases to their dashboard, and provided a timeseries of Probable cases going back to November 1, 2020. On December 12, 2020, we backfilled the Probable cases and adjusted Cases (confirmed plus probable) based on the data provided by Texas. This causes the daily rise in Texas probable cases on November 1, 2020, to appear as 71,734. This large increase includes the data dump of 67,475 Probable cases, most of which are not from the most recent 24 hour period. We also backfilled Positive antibody tests (specimens) from the data provided by Texas at the same time.

On November 11, 2020, Texas reported that their update to Deaths (confirmed and probable) would be delayed due to technical difficulties.

As of August 16, 2020, several commercial laboratories submitted previously backlogged test results to the Texas Department of State Health Services. As a result, new confirmed cases may not have occurred in the past 24 hours. The Texas Department of State Health Services is working to resolve these issues.

On August 2, 2020, Texas noted that "New data will not be posted on this dashboard on Sunday, August 2 due to a scheduled upgrade to the system that processes electronic lab reports. Data for Sunday will be posted with Monday’s data update."

On July 30, 2020, Texas noted that "Cumulative fatalities have been corrected for July 27–29. As DSHS shifted to using death certificate data to count fatalities this week, an automation error caused approximately 225 fatalities to be included that did not have COVID-19 listed as a direct cause of death."

On July 27, 2020, Texas added 675 additional deaths through death certificate reviews. However only 44 deaths were truly "new" deaths on July 27. This will create a one-day artificial apparent daily increase in deaths.

On July 25, 2020, Texas reported that 2092 probable cases had been removed from the statewide case totals by the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District. That removal meant that the number of total cases for Texas appeared smaller than it was. The actual number of new cases in Texas that day was 8,112, not 6,020.

Starting July 23, 2020, Texas has reported that its current hospitalization and ICU numbers are incomplete due to its transition to the HHS reporting system. We carried over hospitalization figures until July 28. We will backfill the complete numbers for July 23–July 28 if the complete data becomes available.

On July 22, 2020, we began reporting Currently in ICU for Texas. We are currently reviewing historical data to maintain an accurate time-series.

On June 16, 2020, Texas notes that "The reported cases for June 16 include 2,622 new cases and 1,476 cases that were previously diagnosed among Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates but that had not been reported by local health departments (887 from Anderson County and 589 from Brazoria County)."

As of May 23, 2020, Texas reports PCR tests separately from antibody tests.