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San Marcos saw a nearly 100 active COVID-19 case count increase Wednesday after the Hays County Local Health Department found that case information was incorrect.
Hays County Epidemiologist Eric Schneider said data showed that San Marcos had 29 active cases in the past 21 days but the local health department received approximately 117 new COVID-19 cases in October.
“At that point, we knew not all of those had been cleared yet, so we continued digging into the data,” said Schneider, adding that the change has caused San Marcos’ active case count to rise and Kyle’s to decrease.
San Marcos now has 124 active COVID-19 cases — a 95-case increase since Tuesday. Meanwhile, Kyle now has 122 active cases — a 154-case decrease.
Schneider attributed the reasons behind the changes to new statewide reporting protocols, shifts in how data is shared with local health departments and human error. County epidemiologist Greggory Drew added that the numbers will continue to change as data is made available to the health department team.
“We actively review and evaluate the data we are provided, but due to the errors in reporting from testing facilities we are correcting data as it comes to the health department,” Drew said.
Numbers throughout Hays County’s COVID-19 report changed on Wednesday with the new information provided to the county. Health department Director Tammy Crumley said the internal review is one of many regular audits conducted on the data.
“Since the pandemic began, we’ve been improving our processes and data reporting protocols as we evolve and new information comes to light,” Crumley said.
Alongside the change in active case counts, the Hays County Local Health Department reported 69 recoveries from COVID-19 and six new cases Wednesday.
There are currently 397 active coronavirus cases — 67 fewer than Tuesday — and there have been 6,103 total cases since the first diagnosis of the virus in Hays County on March 14. The county also reported that there have been 387 active cases over the last 21 days — a 48-case increase since Tuesday.
The local health department states that there have been 736 probable cases spanning from April through October.
There are currently 10 county residents hospitalized by COVID-19 and there have been 383 total hospitalizations. Some patients hospitalized by COVID-19 are in hospitals outside of Hays County but are included in the county’s numbers if they reside within the county, the local health department said.
Hays County has now had 5,620 residents recover from the disease as of Wednesday.
There have been 86 coronavirus-related fatalities reported since the first diagnosis of the virus within the county.
The local health department has received 35,069 negative tests and there have been 41,172 tests administered in Hays County.
Buda has recorded 859 total cases and currently has 95 active cases. Dripping Springs has amassed 120 total cases and has 22 active cases. Wimberley has tallied 111 total cases, including 13 active cases. Austin, within Hays County, currently has seven active cases and has had 82 total cases. Driftwood has recorded 46 total cases and has eight active cases. Niederwald has had 30 total cases and there is one active case. Uhland has had 22 total cases and one active case. Mountain City has had 11 total cases and has three active cases. Maxwell has had 10 total cases.
Manchaca has had eight total cases. Bear Creek has one active case and has had two total cases. Woodcreek has had one total case.
The 20-29-age-range has recorded the most COVID-19 cases with 2,232 total cases tallied as of Wednesday.
According to the local health department, 908 county residents diagnosed with the disease are between 30-39 years old. Seven-hundred-twenty-five people diagnosed with the coronavirus are 40-49 years old. Seven-hundred-five residents fall in the 10-19-year-old age range. Five-hundred-sixty-six county residents diagnosed with COVID-19 are between 50-59 years old, 358 are 60-69 years old, 210 are 70-79 years old, 211 are 9 years old or younger and 116 are 80 and older.
According to the local health department, 3,180 females and 2,923 males in Hays County have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
The county’s ethnic breakdown states 44.88% of county residents diagnosed with the coronavirus are Hispanic, while 32.67% of county residents diagnosed with the disease don’t have a specified ethnicity and 22.45% are non-Hispanic.
By race, 62.9% of county residents who’ve had COVID-19 are white, 34.1% are unknown or not specified, 2.4% are Black and 0.6% are Asian.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported that there have now been 879,994 Texans diagnosed with COVID-19, 17,700 fatalities and an estimated 767,905 recoveries from the disease. There are currently 5,650 Texans hospitalized by the coronavirus, according to the DSHS.
At Texas State University there have been 777 total coronavirus cases since March 1 — 729 among students and 48 among faculty and staff — as of press time on Wednesday. There are currently 29 active cases, according to the university’s dashboard.
As San Marcos Consolidated ISD brought back students at roughly 50% capacity on Oct. 5, the district is reporting three total onsite cases among students and two staff members.
COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks for most people. The disease, however, can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death, especially for older adults and people with existing health problems.
