Stanislaus reports 2,670 coronavirus cases. The state says the county has 1,000 more
Stanislaus County residents can expect to see some big coronavirus case numbers posted this week.
The county Health Services Agency is catching up with verifying a large wave of positive test results last week. The catch-up work is expected to add hundreds of positive tests to the county’s case total.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, the county’s health officer, said a contact tracing team has fallen behind on verification of test results. As the 50-plus-member team makes progress with the backlog, some of the daily totals reported this week will reflect a true increase, while some will be older test results, Vaishampayan said in a video posted Monday on the Stanemergency.org Facebook page.
The county Health Services Agency reported 100 new COVID-19 cases at 5 p.m. Monday, bringing the total to 2,760 since March. The total is far less than the 3,777 positive tests in Stanislaus County recorded on a state government site. The state data provides a truer picture of the severity of the outbreak here.
Vaishampayan said the county has seen a large number of positive tests since the Memorial Day holiday. The case numbers posted last week on an often-cited county dashboard did not truly reflect a “tremendous increase in cases coming into public health last week,” Vaishampayan said.
One reason for falling behind is that the county’s contract tracing team, which calls people who test positive and identifies their close contacts, was moving into newly leased building space. It is now settled in and linked to a state system. That should enable the team to catch up with verifying and reporting the flood of new cases within two weeks, Vaishampayan said in the video.
The team also needs to catch up with calling those who recently tested positive. A message below the video says people who were tested recently, believe they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or have symptoms “must quarantine themselves” at home or at another residence for 14 days.
The quarantine period starts with the date they were exposed to the infected individual.
Coronavirus is a respiratory illness spread by droplets. The best way not to catch it or spread the illness, is staying at least 6 feet away from others, wearing a face mask and not attending social gatherings.
Steep increases in COVID-19 cases
County health services reported some steep numbers last week: the 140 new cases Saturday broke a previous one-day record of 115 on June 28. New cases averaged 83 per day for the week.
Stanislaus isn’t the only county that’s fallen behind in reporting data to the public. San Joaquin County has reported 4,474 cases, about 540 less than the state data.
Royjindar Singh, a county spokesman, said the larger numbers on the state database are raw test results. The county’s contact tracers first verify each person is a county resident and did not have multiple tests at a clinic, hospital or testing site, so the county doesn’t report duplicated tests.
Still, there won’t be a large variation between the state and county tallies after the team catches up with their work, according to Singh.
“There is a significant gap now because we are behind,” Singh said.
The discrepancy means hundreds more local residents are struggling through the coronavirus illness, which may come with high fevers, a cough, tiredness and trouble breathing. The county’s hospitalization numbers are up to date, showing 154 patients with confirmed COVID illness — 46 in intensive care units.
The total number of hospitalizations is 213 if suspected cases are included. A total of 45 county residents have died from the illness.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Stanislaus reports 2,670 coronavirus cases. The state says the county has 1,000 more."
