Collin County Judge Chris Hill Adds Disclaimer To Coronavirus Dashboard Saying County Has 'No Confidence In The Data'
McKINNEY, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Collin County Judge Chris Hill has added a disclaimer to the Collin County COVID-19 dashboard, telling residents the county has no confidence in the data coming from the state.
Like Dallas County and other counties across the state, Collin County reported a major spike in COVID-19 cases last week due to a backlog at the state level.
However, it appears the majority of the more than 1,200 positive cases reported last Friday came from tests conducted between March and July.
The disclaimer says, "Warning: Collin County is providing COVID-19 numbers and data as a convenience to our residents. However, because we have been made aware of inaccuracies in the Department of State Health Services' reporting, we must advise residents that Collin County has no confidence in the data currently being provided to us."
The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting several commercial labs have submitted backlogs of test results and as a result, state and county case counts will include old cases.
This was addressed at this week's Collin County Commissioner's Court meeting.
"What the state has reported out is that they obviously had some technology issues moving lab reports into their system and distributing out to the counties," said Collin County Administrator Bill Bilyeu.
"What they've given us are thousands or hundreds of stale cases that are probably all now recovered.. is that right? Correct. And they never got contact traced? They never even got case investigated? This is worthless information at this point? Is that fair? Correct," said Judge Hill."I'm just mortified at the fact that there's 15 hundred cases that the people may or may not have ever been contacted. They may or may not have known if they are ever positive and that's because the data was never captured by the state by their tracking system," said Collin County Commissioner Darrell Hale.
"It's ridiculous I don't want to guide us on a disaster declaration when I have 100% certainty that the numbers that I have been given are false," said Judge Hill.
Hill says because of this, they considered taking the county's COVID-19 dashboard down, but thought this might confuse residents.
So instead, there's now a disclaimer on it notifying residents that the county has no confidence in the data.