Fort Bend County COVID-19 Case Numbers Update

FORT BEND COUNTY COVID-19 CASE NUMBERS UPDATE

County Officials Report Uptick in Cases, Mostly Due to Delayed Lab Results

Fort Bend County, TX – Today, Fort Bend County is improving and changing the process for issuing COVID-19 case updates to the response hub. The website update will change from 5:00 P.M. to 8:30 A.M., effective immediately, in order to give the public more accurate numbers and provide a more timely response to media inquiries.

This shift in time reporting gives the health officials more time to verify the accuracy of the and ensure the report is not double counting or including people who don’t live in Fort Bend County. Our goal is to provide the information on COVID-19 in a way that is more contextual, accurate and timely.

In that vein, today’s numbers show a large increase of 100 cases in the county due to delay in reporting to local government. Over half of these tests for these new cases were performed over a week ago, most more than two weeks ago. Yet, the positive results were just reported from the labs.

“The current delays in coronavirus lab test reporting is due to the rapid increase in test availability and variation in commercial lab reporting procedures. We expect to see an improvement in reporting as time goes on,” said Dr. Jacquelyn Minter, Director of Health and Human Services. “However, these delayed reports remind all of us that it is vital the public follow health guidelines for those who experience symptoms of coronavirus before, during and after testing.”

The remaining new cases in Fort Bend County in one day is considered by health officials to be a significant increase, but it follows along the modeling for a peak, which is expected approximately April 23. In addition, the county is sad to report that a seventh person in the county, who was in the high-risk group for severe disease, died from the virus.

The recommended guidelines state that people who experience the symptoms of coronavirus must quarantine until test results are back. If the test result is positive, the patient may stay home as long as the symptoms are not severe but must isolate for 14 days to protect the health of others in the household or outside contacts. Once symptoms subside, the patient needs to continue adhering to social distancing, wearing a mask and washing hands and sanitizing surfaces until the virus is no longer contagious to others.