COVID-19 related deaths surpass 1,000 in San Antonio, Bexar County

September 14, 2020 steven

SAN ANTONIO – COVID-19 related deaths have surpassed 1,000 in San Antonio and Bexar County.

San Antonio Metropolitan Health District officials reported 49,915 total COVID-19 cases and 1,016 total deaths in Bexar County, as of Sunday, an increase of 142 new cases.

City officials also reported that Metro Health will add a backlog of 1,575 COVID-19 cases to the total case count for the area. The positive test results are from various labs and from March to Aug. 23.

You can read the full statement from the Texas Dept. of State Health Services regarding the backlog of cases below.

“DSHS received a cumulative file of COVID-19 test results from HCA Houston Healthcare, a health system in Houston with several labs throughout Texas that have begun submitting results to DSHS for entry into NEDSS, the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System. The file includes approximately 205,000 lab results of which 21,366 were positive. Dates of collection range from March to Aug. 23 and include tests from across the state.

A routing error during the system upgrade caused DSHS Austin labs and Baylor Scott and White (BSW) labs to not be moved for processing into NEDSS. The issue has been resolved and they are now ready to be uploaded into NEDSS. For DSHS Austin Lab, there are approximately 52,267 COVID-19 lab results of which 5,000 are positive. They include all of June and July with tests from across the state. For BSW, there are 87,340 COVID-19 lab results of which 9,000 are positive. They range from June 26th through September and will affect Austin, Temple, Killeen and Dallas areas the most.

Also, DSHS received a cumulative file on September 11th from Longview Regional that has a total of 680 COVID-19 test results of which 72 are positive. Dates of collection range from June through current.

So that state and local COVID-19 data will most accurately reflect the current situation in your community, we encourage you to report cases arising from older testing as backlogged cases, and more recent cases as new. This will help us ensure that estimates of active and recovered patients are as accurate as possible. We understand that this is a large backlog, so for the LHDs to better manage these, they will be processed throughout the week.”

One new death was also reported Sunday in addition to 23 deaths ranging from June 25 – August 27, according to Metro Health officials. A total of 193 deaths are from congregate settings.

According to numbers on the city’s website, 246 patients are hospitalized, 108 are in the intensive care unit and 54 are on ventilators. There are 16% of staffed beds available and 65% of ventilators available.