HOUSTON – When the Texas positivity rate suddenly doubled this month, parents and teachers preparing to go back to school weren’t the only people scratching their heads.
“It’s making it very confusing for people, and for physicians too,” said Dr. Diana Fite, president of the Texas Medical Association. “I think it’s hard for people to understand.”
The discrepancy in the positivity rate was blamed on coding errors that prevented a half-million test results from being counted.
KPRC 2 has reported on other COVID-19 discrepancies, including the difference in how the state and Harris County count Coronavirus deaths.
“That just confuses people all the more, so it’s hard for them to know what to do to protect themselves,” Dr. Fite said.
The solution is to focus on trends, instead of day-to-day numbers, Fite added.
“The data still gives trends, it still gives information,” Fite said. “We can trust to a certain degree. If we see patterns I think those are what we can trust more than anything else. More than an exact number.”