TEXAS, USA — On Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott sent out a tweet that said Texas had reported zero COVID-19 related deaths.
This left many online confused, as there were North Texas counties that reported COVID-19 related deaths the same day.
THE QUESTION
Were there zero reported COVID-19 related deaths on Sunday?
THE SOURCE
THE ANSWER
While the Texas Department of State Health Services may have reported zero deaths, as the governor tweeted, there is added context needed to understand that COVID-19 deaths may have occurred, due to a lag in reporting and confirmed deaths.
WHAT WE FOUND
The most important thing to understand is the date a death is reported to the state is not the same as the date the death occurred.
Death certificates are supposed to be filed within 14 days of a death but will frequently be filed three to six weeks after the death, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
There are often times fewer new death certificates filed on the weekend, state health officials said.
Deaths are sometimes amended later to update the cause of death when a cause was not listed on the original death certificate, which can happen up to three months later. This is usually when the medical certifier is waiting for the results of an autopsy.
RELATED: Texas reports 0 COVID-19 deaths for first time since tracking pandemic data, Gov. Abbott says
Some local health departments also have different ways of counting COVID-19 related deaths.
And there are sometimes delays between when health departments learn about a death and when it’s reported to the state.
While the Texas Department of State Health Services posts the number of newly reported deaths on its dashboard daily, those deaths happened during the previous few weeks.