All Over The News Yesterday -- Texas Covid-19 Cases Surge -- In Fact, The Numbers Reported Surged, The Number Of Cases Did Not -- June 17, 2020

Updates

June 17, 2020: This was the headline story today. See explanation in original post.

Original Post

The report, the numbers, the graphics looked a bit suspicious. There's a reason.

From the PalestineHerald:

Anderson County, overnight, increased the official number of COVD-19 cases nearly 10-fold, reaching 989 cases.

Tuesday's surge put Anderson County 18th among the state's 250 counties for COVID-19 cases, county Judge Robert Johnston said Tuesday.
What's going on?

It's simple: The state has decided to start counting COVID-19 prison cases in the county where the prison is located. Previously, prison cases went on a separate tally under the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“I don't really care how it's counted,” Johnston said. “I just want to know what the rules are. We had 103; now it's 989.”

Without numbers from Anderson County's five prisons, the county on Tuesday reported 103 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 79 – or 76 percent – have recovered. The county also has reported no COVID-related deaths.

Anderson County's five prisons totaled 886 confirmed cases, including two deaths. Two of the prisons – Beto and Michael – accounted for 733 of the confirmed inmate cases of COVID-19. 

So, where is Anderson County? What prisons?

• out in the middle of nowhere but part of the Dallas/Fort Worth DMA
• located 130 miles southeast of DFW; or 100 miles almost directly east of Waco, TX
• population: under 60,000
• county seat: Palestine
• the state operates four prisons and a transfer facility in the county

Of course, this still doesn't explain ... yes, it does.

From wiki, a  bit of political trivia:

Anderson is a strongly Republican county, voting Republican in every election since 1980 (as of 2016). The county last voted Democratic in 1976, when Jimmy Carter won 57% of the county's votes. Hillary Clinton managed to win just 19.8% of the vote in the county, the least of any presidential candidate since at least 1960. 

The other major population centers in Texas showed no dramatic change in overall numbers. If there were dramatic changes, one might want to check the state and federal prison stats. Just saying.

Only nine states in the US have fewer Wuhan-flu-related deaths per capita than Texas, to include: Arkansas, Idaho, WV, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii.