The Centers for Disease Control now allows one new Covid19 case to be counted as at least 16 new cases under its new “probable case” definition. The result may be an inflation of positive test numbers, some officials warn.
At a recent meeting of the Commissioner’s Court in Collin County Texas, Aisha Souri from the county’s epidemiology department, explained how one confirmed Covid19 case who has had contact with 16 others will now be counted as a total of 17 Covid19 cases under the new definition.
“So, for a confirmed case it stays the same, you still just need PCR [lab results]. But, now they’ve added a probable case definition. So, that still gets counted towards the case count. It’s different, it’s not ‘confirmed,’ it’s ‘probable,’ but it’s still a case,” she said.
At that same meeting, Collin County Judge Chris Hill outlined the expanded list of criteria that will have individuals counted as Covid cases.
“If you have a subjective fever and you have a headache, and you live in Collin County, you now meet the qualifications to be a probable COVID patient. It is remarkable how low the standard is now…If you have one of the major symptoms, you have a cough or you have shortness of breathe, and you live in Collin County, then you can satisfy the definition for a probable COVID case.”
He also expressed concern that the new standards would cause a large spike in related numbers of Covid19 cases.
“But I’m very concerned that we absolutely could see the numbers jump very rapidly in a way that is actually not indicative of what we’re seeing here in the community in the Public Health Department.”
The mainstream media has reported extensively on a new or second “wave” of positive Covid19 cases in recent weeks.