Dallas County Adds 982 Coronavirus Cases, Records Highest Average Daily Pandemic Case Rate

Updated at 4:10 p.m.: Revised to include Denton County COVID-19 data.

Dallas County on Saturday reported 982 more cases of the coronavirus, which the county considers all new. Four new deaths from COVID-19 have also been reported.

The latest victims were a Lancaster man in his 60s, a Dallas man in his 60s and a DeSoto man and woman, both in their 80s. All of the victims had been hospitalized and had underlying health issues.

Saturday’s report included COVID-19 test results reported through the end of Wednesday afternoon, while Sunday’s report will include results from Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Dallas County Judge Clay said. Jenkins.

“Testing typically takes place on holiday weekends and we expect the numbers to be more representative of the situation on the ground midweek,” Jenkins said in a written statement. “Overall, I believe the residents of Dallas County took the health community’s warnings and advice to heart and that there was less gathering and fewer people going on this vacation. We will be able to tell how far we saw a Thanksgiving weekend peak starting one to two weeks after it ended. “

Of the new cases reported on Saturday, 739 are confirmed and 243 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the county to 122,923 and probable cases to 11,870. The county has recorded 1,204 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and 31 probable deaths.

The county recently announced that it only counts positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; some results on antibodies and “households” have been included previously.

While other counties in North Texas provide estimates of how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials are not reporting recovery, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not using this metric.

Health officials are using hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and emergency room visits as key indicators to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. In the 24-hour period that ended Wednesday, 759 patients with COVID-19 were in acute care at county hospitals. During the same period, 495 emergency room visits were for symptoms of the disease.

The county reported that during the period November 8-14, 1,282 confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed in school-aged children. As of November 1, 3,630 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in school-aged children and staff at more than 632 Dallas County schools, and over 130 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in children and the staff of 97 daycare centers in the county.

More than two-thirds of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization so far are in people under the age of 65, and diabetes is an underlying condition for around one-third of all hospitalized patients, according to the county.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily confirmed and probable new cases for the period Nov. 8-14 was 1,405. This equates to 53.3 new cases per day per 100,000 population – the highest rate than the county. has experienced since the start of the pandemic, health officials said. The figure is calculated based on when COVID-19 tests were collected, according to the county.

Dallas County does not provide positivity rates for all COVID-19 tests performed in the region; County health officials said they did not have an accurate tally of how many tests were done each day. But as of the county’s latest reporting period, 17% of people who presented to hospitals with symptoms of COVID-19 have tested positive for the virus. This is an increase from the previous baseline period, where 15.3% of these patients tested positive.

Of the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the county, about 23% are associated with long-term care facilities.

The county said that in the past 30 days, more than 850 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among 84 long-term care facilities in the county, including 304 cases among staff members. This is the highest number of long-term care facilities with active outbreaks since the start of the pandemic, health officials said.

State-wide data

Statewide, 3,954 new confirmed cases and 102 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Saturday. The state has also reported 70 older cases of COVID-19 that were recently reported by labs.

Texas has now reported 1,151,069 confirmed cases and 21,309 deaths.

There are 8,597 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,385 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Of all hospitalizations in the 19-county hospital region that covers the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 15.63% are COVID-19 patients, according to state data. That’s above the 15% threshold set by Governor Greg Abbott in an Oct. 7 executive order that states that companies must go from 75% to 50% of their capacity if they are in an area where more than 15 % of hospital beds are occupied by COVID -19 patients for seven consecutive days.

The zone first hit the 15% threshold on Friday after several record days.

The statewide seven-day average positivity rate, based on the date the test samples were collected, was 10.823% on Friday. State health officials have said that using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate rate of positivity.

The condition also provides a positivity rate based on when the lab results were reported to the condition; this rate was 11.1% on Friday.

Officials previously calculated the coronavirus positivity rate in Texas by dividing the last seven days of new positive test results by the last seven days of total new test results. By this measure, the positivity rate is now 10.12%, according to the state’s scorecard.

A spokesperson for the Texas State Department Health Services said data on positivity rates based on lab results and new cases will likely be eliminated, but are still provided for transparency and clarity. continuity.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County health officials will begin releasing new data on Sunday.

The county reported 1,302 coronavirus cases and three new deaths on Wednesday.

The county has recorded 95,989 cases and 838 deaths. Of the cases, 85,010 are confirmed and 10,979 are probable. The recoveries amount to 67,595.

On Wednesday, 812 people were hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 413 coronavirus cases in Collin County on Saturday, bringing the county’s total to 25,566. A new death from COVID-19 was also reported, bringing the death toll to 252.

No details on the last victim were available.

According to state data, the county has 3,123 active cases and has recorded 22,443 recoveries.

COVID-19 hospitalizations total 267, according to the county dashboard.

Denton County

Denton County reported 182 cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, 143 of which were active.

No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll at 148.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total number of cases to 23,276, of which 5,523 are active. They also bring the total number of molecular cases to 19,755 and antigen cases to 3,521. Recoveries stand at 17,605.

There were 122 COVID-19 patients hospitalized on Saturday, according to county data.

Other counties

The Texas Department of State Health Services have resumed reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some countries, new data may not be communicated every day.

The latest numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 2,948 cases, 37 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 4,870 cases, 80 deaths.
• Ellis County: 6,828 cases, 113 deaths.
• Johnson County: 5,327 cases, 105 deaths.

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