Texas Border Business
EDINBURG – The Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Department has been notified of 23,000 new positive COVID-19 cases for the month of January that had not been previously reported.
“Given the extraordinary demand for COVID-19 testing immediately after the holidays, we suspected that there was a high probability of a reporting backlog. That suspicion has now been confirmed,” said Eddie Olivarez, Chief Administrative Officer of the Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Department. “Testing vendors are responsible for submitting their own data to the state. We expect these data adjustments to continue over the next several weeks and encourage all COVID-19 test sites to be proactive in reporting results so we can provide a clear picture of COVID in our area.”
As COVID-19 evolves from a pandemic to an endemic virus, the number of new positive cases diminishes in significance relative to the number of hospitalizations and deaths associated with the virus.
Local hospitals are being taxed with patients who have postponed or delayed care due to non COVID-19 ailments and encourage COVID positive individuals who are asymptomatic or displaying mild symptoms to contact their primary care provider before seeking care at a local hospital.
