San Antonio’s current COVID-19 indicators ‘concerning’ to officials

After months of sitting below the 5 percent threshold for COVID-19 positivity rate, San Antonio is ticking back up and officials are concerned.

The 5 percent threshold is generally the marker that signals the need for tighter control on transmission.

The last time the area had a positivity rate above the benchmark was March 14, according to online data. At that point the rate was 5.6 percent. It’s currently 5.8 percent.

On June 6, the city reported a 1.2 percent positivity rate, which was the lowest on record.

Metro Health calculates the positivity rate by dividing the number of positive tests returned for the week by the total number of tests administered for that time period.

Last week, the department attributed the rise to a decrease in testing and said there was “no need for concern.” This week, however, Dr. Anita Kurian, assistant director with Metro Health, says officials are monitoring indicators across the board in response.

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“We are now starting to see a new and concerning trend in our COVID-19 warning indicators which is being closely monitored by us,” Kurian tells MySA in a statement. “This week, the 7-day average of new daily cases jumped 21 percent (104 to 126), with daily averages settling around 126 new cases per day and we are seeing a slight uptick in weekly hospitalizations. Our COVID-19 weekly positivity rate has also increased to 5.8 perent —a 2.0 percentage point increase from last week.”

Kurian was not immediately available to identify a specific event or factor for the increase.