EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – The El Paso Health Department changed the way it calculates active cases, leading to a massive drop in that number Wednesday morning.
There are currently 8,152 active cases known, which is 26,166 less than Tuesday.
“We’re just trying to streamline the system, to make sure the community – and everyone on the team here – has the right data to make recommendations for the future,” said Fire Chief Mario D’agostino, the head of the emergency operations of El Paso.
Previously, the health department would only flag a case as a recovery if they were able to contact the person who was infected and confirm that they were symptom-free.
If not, that person would be considered an active case for another 55 days.
Now the city has shortened that time frame to 28 days.
D’agostino said El Paso now takes a similar approach to that of other major cities in Texas.
According to the previous calculation system, El Paso had been on the list of more than 34,000 active cases since mid-November.
Health director Angela Mora said the city has been working on this new system for a few weeks. She said it was often difficult for the health department to reach people who were infected, and therefore would remain as an “active” cause for much longer than necessary.
As for the state of play with the other figures, El Paso reported five new virus-related deaths and 350 new cases.
Latest deaths include two men in their 60s, two men in their 70s and one woman in their 80s.
For a full rundown of El Paso’s Covid-19 data, click here.