State health officials published new data this week that showed the state’s positivity rate was higher in the spring than originally disclosed, even as public officials cited the data to justify business reopenings during the pandemic.
The Department of State Health Services on Monday announced a new method for calculating the positivity rate, or the proportion of positive tests, and conceded the previous method obscured the extent of viral transmission by combining old and new cases. The new formula relies on the date a coronavirus test was administered, rather than the date it was reported to health officials and verified as a case.
As Texas prepared for the first phase of reopening in late April, Gov. Greg Abbott repeatedly pointed to the state’s positivity rate, even as the number of new cases and deaths continued to rise. Announcing his initial reopening order on April 27, Abbott declared that the "COVID-19 infection rate has been on the decline over the past 17 days."
