Texas CARES dashboard

The Texas Coronavirus Antibody REsponse Survey (Texas CARES) measures the percentage of participants who have antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 virus in their blood (this measurement is called “seroprevalence”). All Texans 5-90 years of age can participate in the survey. Participants complete an informed consent, fill out a questionnaire, and then receive a blood draw at 4 time points (each 3 months apart) to determine if they have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The data on this page presents these results in real time (Note: updated weekly). For permission to use this data and analysis, please contact [email protected].

The dashboard is created and maintained by the Texas CARES Data Coordinating Center (DCC): Ashraf Yaseen, Stacia M. DeSantis, and Michael D. Swartz, Michael Gonzalez, Leqing Wu, Yashar Talebi, Rhiana Abbas, Tianyao Hao, and Rachit Sabharwal.

Please download the Dashboard Guide for how to navigate the dashboard and more details about what the data represents.

About the data 

This state-wide data is high volume and continuously updating. Any considerations of this data should take into account several limitations. Briefly, 

• Data source: Texas CARES participant surveys and completed antibody draws.
• Day-to-day data presentation may be different due to the reporting lag from the laboratory to the data coordinating center (DCC).
• Antibody data may be over or underestimated in comparison to the entire Texas population given the number of people participating and their past exposure to COVID-19 as well as setting (e.g., essential workers). This is because we are using a convenience or volunteer-based sample. As more Texans participate, this data will become more and more accurate to reflect the "true" seroprevalence of antibodies in Texas.
• There are some situations where there may be a lag in test result reporting due to weekends and holidays.
• As we move forward adjustments and data weighting will be developed and shared with the Texas communities.
• The data results shown represent participants enrolling in their first antibody draw during the period of August 2020 onwards.  No longitudinal data is presented on the dashboard at this time(i.e. data on second and third antibody tests).
• Any category, such as a specific race, with a small number of individuals may not initially provide good representation for the population. The seropositivity for these categories should be considered with caution until more individuals are recruited into the survey.

Estimation of Seropositivity

Currently, we estimate seropositivity as the proportion of participants in our sample with a positive antibody test result relative to the entire participant population. Future updates will statistically adjust these estimates to match the demographic distribution of the people of the state of Texas.

UTHealth School of Public Health team

Principal Investigator: Eric Boerwinkle

Lead Co-Investigator: Stacia M. DeSantis

Co-Investigators: Michael D. Swartz, Melissa A. Valerio, Ashraf Yaseen, Steven H. Kelder, W. Bill Kohl, Sarah Messiah, Luis Gonzalo Leon Novelo

Research Coordinator: Lindsay Padilla

Project Management: Camille Breaux, Jessica A. Ross

Staff: Michael Gonzalez, Leqing Wu, Yashar Talebi, Rhiana Abbas, Rachit Sabharwal, Emma Bergqvist, Amy Casebier, Haoting Han, Ximena Flandes

Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Micaela Sandoval

This project has been approved by the UTHealth Committee for Protection of Human Subjects, IRB# HSC-SPH-20-0825.