We asked the chief
Several inquiries have been made about the reporting of local COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks, especially regarding the accuracy of the case count and the status of those cases. The Journal-Sun strives to report accurately and has been mostly reliant on the reporting it receives from the Bowie County Emergency Operations Center, a joint effort between Bowie and Cass counties.
Several of you have requested that the reporting of numbers be accompanied by demographic information like that which is reported by Bowie County. However, the resources Bowie County dedicates to its contact tracing efforts and its ability to provide detail regarding age and gender, according to Atlanta Police Chief Robin Betts, are not afforded to Cass County.
The Journal-Sun sat down Friday with Chief Betts who is head of emergency management for Cass County and serves as Atlanta’s Public Safety Director for Fire and Police, to discuss the possibility of retrieving that information and the processes in place to manage the data.
Betts understands the frustration about accuracy and explained why discrepancies can happen, citing a change two months ago in how numbers are reported, locally.
“When all this first started, the hospitals, clinics and all that, they did not report to the state. The state said ‘hey, it’s y’alls [local government] job to go get that from them’.”
Betts explained that due to HIPPA, healthcare providers would not release that information. However, the Governor ordered providers to report the information to state and local government.
“So now the numbers in the last month and a half, two months, if someone is positive, it’s reported back to the clinic plus it’s on file with the state plus that person’s contact information, but that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
When asked why Bowie County’s reporting of positive COVID-19 cases are classified by age and gender and Cass County’s cases are not, Betts implied privacy issues but said it ultimately comes down to resources. Bowie County has a dedicated team to track that data on their own—something Cass County is not equipped to do.
In the beginning, Betts attempted to gather information by telephone from each person who tested positive.
“I’ll call them, I’m with emergency management, I just need to get some information, some will do it, and some will say it’s none of your business. We did this early on but now we got so many that are just flowing through. I mean when we were at 12 and 14, we could track them every day. Now, there’s no way we can keep up with it. It’s a seven day a week job”, he said.
At 4 p.m. Friday, Betts had the latest COVID-19 report on his desktop computer. A case count of 102 displayed at the bottom of the screen. However, the state was reporting 105 at the same time.
“So, I’ve got three that aren’t on here that I hadn’t got reported.”
The Chief disclosed that the youngest active case is six months and the oldest is 91 years.
When asked how Cass County rates from a population standpoint, Betts said there are 11 counties “ahead of us” meaning their active-case rate is lower.
“From zero to 35, we’re at 11. It’s [rating] based on population, congestion and so forth”, Betts said, “I think Cass County is doing a very good job. Everybody is pretty much adhering to the mask regulation.”
Additionally, emergency management is working with the school districts “very diligently” waiting for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) “to give the district guidance on what they need to do”, Betts said, “and then whatever they need for us to help facilitate.”
When asked if the hospital in Atlanta is equipped to handle COVID-19 patients, he said, “If we carry a patient up there for medical trauma or whatever the related issue is going to the hospital, if we know that they’re COVID, we let them [hospital] know but most of the COVID patients are transported to a COVID wing in Texarkana.”
According to Betts, both hospitals in Texarkana have a dedicated COVID-19 patient wing and are far better equipped to handle those patients.
Moving forward, the Journal-Sun will confirm and publish the numbers it receives from the Bowie County Joint Operations Center on Friday before publication the following Wednesday.
As of Friday, July 24, Bowie County Emergency Operations Center reports a total of 557 positive COVID-19 cases, with 259 recoveries and 35 deaths. There are currently 264 active cases being traced in Bowie County. Cass County has a total of 105 cases with 50 recovered and two deaths. Cass County currently has 53 active cases.
Free COVID-19 testing will be offered at the Bowie-Texarkana Health Department at 902 W. 12th Street Texarkana, TX 75501 beginning Monday, July 27, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. through Saturday for two weeks. Register at gogettested.com or on-site. No symptoms required. Call 903-255-5560 for questions about testing.