CORRECTED: Eight COVID-19 cases now ‘recovered’

Donley County Judge John Howard, MD, reported today that eight of the 23 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are now listed as “recovered.”

No new cases of the virus have been confirmed since Monday with a total of 71 tests having been conducted on local patients by the Clarendon Family Medical Center. Only two of those tests are pending as of today, and 48 tests have been reported as negative. Two local people tested positive at facilities outside of the county.

(Editor’s Note: One case previously reported as having been confirmed at an out-of-county facility has been moved back into the “locally tested” category.)

Howard said two local residents who were confirmed to have COVID-19 are still hospitalized, and the remainder are recovering at home.

Judge Howard first reported three recovered patients last Friday, a fourth was listed as recovered on Monday, and two more were added Tuesday.

The judge also said the resourcefulness of his clinic’s staff has led to finding advanced testing facilities which has dramatically sped up the time in which test results are returned.

A lot of attention has been given to Donley County for the high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases being reported, but Howard does not think it means that the local community is “sicker” than other communities.

“We don’t have more disease,” Howard said. “We have more information.”

Howard said for a fair comparison of how many confirmed cases communities have on a per capita basis, you have to really be able to say how many people have been tested as a whole.

Wednesday, Howard said his clinic had tested about two percent of the local population, which was about four times the testing percentage of Texas as a whole.

Some communities are not testing at near Donley County’s level, but, Howard says, it doesn’t mean they don’t have the disease.

“I’ve said it before, I could lower the numbers in Donley County by just going back two weeks and not testing anyone,” he said.

(Editor’s Note: This article originally reported information from the county that 21 people were listed as ‘recovered’, but that number included all 71 patients who have been tested for COVID-19 (whether positive or negative) who are now symptom free. We apologize for the confusion.)