COVID-19 Reporting Backlog Prompts High Dallas County Numbers for Second Consecutive Day

DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – A backlog of COVID-19 cases significantly boosted Dallas County numbers for a second day in a row on Monday.

Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 1,850 additional confirmed cases Monday, bringing the total confirmed case count in Dallas County to 65,278, including 829 confirmed deaths. The total probable case count in Dallas is 2,519, including 7 probable deaths from COVID-19. The county also reported four additional deaths.

“Once again we have a high number of cases coming in, this time from June, due to a coding error in the State’s electronic laboratory reporting system,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. “While at this point it is reasonable and understandable for people to be skeptical of the State’s reporting system, it is not reasonable to be skeptical of the science that is proving to be effective throughout the world in controlling the spread of COVID-19, namely wearing a mask, six-foot distancing, hand-washing, deferring unnecessary trips until the numbers are lower, and avoiding any indoor activity where people outside your home cannot wear a mask one hundred percent of the time.

Jenkins said the State is working to fix the coding error but he expects to have several more days of discovered backlogged cases where the patient was tested, received their results from the lab, but the information was lost in the State’s system and therefore no tracing was done.