UPDATE: San Antonio reporting issue leads Texas to remove more than 3,000 reported coronavirus cases

UPDATE 3:42 p.m.:

The City of San Antonio said it will continue to include to combine probable coronavirus cases with confirmed coronavirus cases in its case count while separating those numbers to the state.

The city said Thursday it views probable cases — which are positive antigen tests of people who are showing symptoms — as being the same as confirmed cases — which are done by a positive molecular test.

“Probable cases do not mean ‘maybe’ cases of COVID-19,” said Dr. Colleen Bridger. “Antigen tests are FDA approved, and positive tests are highly accurate. San Antonio is one of only three Texas cities collecting and reporting this data per the CDC guidelines, but the State of Texas wants apples-to-apples comparisons between Texas cities.”

The city said the antigen tests were approved for emergency use by the FDA between May 8th and July 2nd.

ORIGINAL:

BEXAR COUNTY, Tex. (KTSA News) — The Texas Department of State Health Services said it has removed 3,484 cases from its statewide total because the San Antonio Metro Health District was including probable cases in their case totals to the state.

The state said the San Antonio Metro Health District was not fully separating probable cases from confirmed case counts before Tuesday.

The state amended its numbers Wednesday to reflect the removal of the probable cases and said Metro Health is now sending its probable and confirmed case counts to the state separately.  DSHS said the numbers it releases are only to reflect confirmed cases in the state.