Despite hundreds of new positive test results Sunday, the cumulative number of novel coronavirus cases in Bexar County dropped by 95, according to data from the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department.
On Sunday, Metro Health reported 41,082 cumulative coronavirus cases – the overall number of positive tests in Bexar County that have ever occurred. On Saturday, that cumulative number was higher, at 41,177.
Bruce Davidson, spokesman for Mayor Ron Nirenberg, explained that the dip was attributed to duplicate cases being removed from the system.
“As Metro Health prepared to convert to the Texas Health Trace data system, files are being cleaned and duplicates merged,” Davidson said. “The duplicates are a result of people getting multiple COVID tests. A person can go to a drive-thru and a 15-minute test facility and a hospital, and one person can easily account for multiple tests.”
The Department of State Health Services created the Texas Health Trace system for contact tracing purposes. So far, Metro Health has removed 619 cases from the cumulative case count as it locates and deletes duplicates. It was unclear if additional adjustments to the numbers were expected.
Bexar County reported 524 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday evening. Hospitalization numbers remained steady, with 879 COVID-positive patients admitted to area hospitals as of Sunday, an increase of five patients since Saturday. Metro Health reported five more people in intensive care, as well, bringing the total to 357, and two more on ventilators, bringing that total to 246.
“We must remain vigilant to accelerate the downward trend in hospitalizations and cases,” Nirenberg said in a Facebook post Sunday. “Stay home to the greatest extent possible. Wear your masks in public. Wash your hands regularly.”
Bexar County had 16 deaths reported on Sunday, but 13 of those came from Christus Santa Rosa Hospital Westover Hills and had occurred between July 4 and July 22, according to a note on the City’s COVID-19 website. All of the people who died had underlying conditions and ranged from ages 30 to 79. Three of them were men, and 10 were women.
