New Austin Public Health Dashboard Focuses On ZIP Codes, Rates

Tony Cantu
Updated ·3 min read

AUSTIN, TX — In continuing efforts to heighten transparency and increase the coronavirus-related data for the public, Austin Public Health on Friday released an additional dashboard displaying weekly COVID-19 testing rates in Austin-Travis County — with emphasis on ZIP codes seeing the highest increases in positivity rate and new cases.

The so-called Testing Rates Dashboard includes the overall percent positive, accompanied by breakdowns of data highlighting ZIP codes with the highest increase in weekly percent positive, highest percent of positive test results and highest percent increase in new cases over the last seven days.

This dashboard will be updated once per week on Tuesdays by 6 p.m., health district officials said.

Desktop Version
Mobile Version

“As we have brought more people in to analyze the data, we are able to make more information available to the public,”Austin Public Health Chief Epidemiologist Janet Pichette said in a prepared statement. “The positivity rate shows how common the virus may be in the community. We look at this data along with new cases, hospitalizations and deaths for guidance."

Health district officials provided key statistics illustrated in the new dashboard: As of Sept. 11, the 78724 ZIP code had the highest increase in weekly percent positive at 60.7 percent; the 78617 ZIP code had the highest percent of positive test results at 13.7 percent; and the 78735 ZIP code had the highest percent increase in new cases over the last seven days at 300 percent.

Illustration provided by Austin Public Health.

Officials explained the calculation method: The percent positive rate is calculated by dividing the number of positive cases by the number of overall tests being performed, multiplied by 100. The percent increase data is calculated by finding the difference between the current and prior week’s count, officials added, noting that the resulting difference is then divided by the prior week's count and multiplied by 100.

Data showing the highest percent increase in percent positive and new cases are filtered to only consider ZIP codes that fall within the top 50 percent of positive test results or new case counts, respectively, health district officials noted. This is to exclude ZIP codes that have experienced an extremely high percent increase in cases but have actual counts that are small relative to other ZIP codes, added officials.

The Testing Rates Dashboard also includes graphs that illustrate the positivity rate by age group and race/ethnicity as well as a map with the following layers, including:

  • Percent Positive.

  • Cases per 100,000 People.

  • Tests Provided per 100,000 People.

  • Weekly New Case Count.

  • Cumulative Case Count.

Austin Public Health officials provided additional updates:

  • The additional layers on the map on the Testing Rates Dashboard will be added to the map located on the COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard.

  • The number of active cases and the zip codes with the highest number of new cases over the last week, last 14 days, and last 30 days will also be added to the Surveillance Dashboard.

  • On Monday, Sept. 14, APH released a new dashboard that illustrates the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care facilities, which includes nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and intermediate care facilities with one or more cases.

  • This dashboard, as well as all other APH COVID-19 dashboards, can be found at the COVID-19 Dashboards portal in the municipal website.

For the latest information and updates, visit the COVID-19 Informationsection of the City of Austin website.

This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch