A backlog of 45,000 COVID-19 cases has been cleared in Hidalgo County, making new infections easier to track.

The backlog clearing up come son the same day, the county reported 26 new cases and four coronavirus-related deaths.

"We've caught up with our numbers, but it doesn't mean we're not gonna have other problems in the future,” Hidalgo County Health and Human Services chief Administrative Officer Eddie Olivarez said. “For example, if there's another variant."

The backlog occurred due to COVID testing and reporting being decentralized as the county, 186 different vendors and people at home were doing their own tests.

All those results were sent to the state before they were reported back to the county, creating a problem during the omicron wave.

"Omicron didn't really hit the Valley till right around Christmastime, and all of a sudden, everyone came back from vacation,” Olivarez said. “Everyone was about to go on vacation, everyone needed to get tested, so there's a huge demand of testing."

Monday, March 21 will mark the two-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case in the county. Despite a decrease in new cases, Olivarez said he expects numbers to be back up again.

“COVID is becoming endemic, it's no longer pandemic,” Olivarez said. “In other words, it's here to stay. It's part of our viral inventory that we have now in the United States and here in Texas.”