Another 955 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Harris County on Aug. 20, including 501 cases in the city of Houston and 454 in Harris County outside of the city.
The seven-day average for new cases confirmed per day in the county has been in the low 900s and high 800s throughout the week after a steep drop brought it down from the 1,600s earlier in August. At the same time, reports from the city of Houston and the Texas Medical Center show the testing positivity rate slowly decreasing.
In the TMC hospital system, the testing positivity rate was at 7.8% as of Aug. 19, down from about 8.7% one week earlier. A separate TMC chart based on state data looking at the nine-county Greater Houston area shows the positivity rate at around 7% as well.
The city of Houston announced it had received a backlog of testing data from the state that affected historical testing positivity statistics. The overall positivity rate since the start of July was revised to be higher than previously thought. However, the rate has still been dropping, including a drop from 22.4% on Aug. 7 to 15.9% on Aug. 14.
