Dallas County reports 2,427 coronavirus cases, 17 deaths; Tarrant County adds 3,410 cases

Updated at 5:20 p.m .: Revised to include statewide numbers.

Dallas County on Wednesday reported 2,427 additional cases of the coronavirus, all considered new, as well as record hospitalizations for the third day in a row. Seventeen new deaths from COVID-19 have also been reported.

The latest victims included 14 Dallas residents, including six men who had all been hospitalized and had underlying health issues: one in their 50s, two in their 60s, two in their 60s and one in their 80s.

Also among the victims reported Wednesday were eight women from Dallas, five of whom lived in long-term care facilities. Two of the women living in long-term care facilities were 80 and three 90, and three of the five had underlying health problems.

The other Dallas victims were two women in their sixties and one in their sixties. All three had been hospitalized and had underlying health issues.

A Cedar Hill woman in her 60s who lived in a long-term care facility, a Garland woman in her 60s who died in an emergency department and a man were also reported on Wednesday. from Grand Prairie in the 1980s. They each had underlying health issues.

Dallas County officials have warned that, based on models projecting the spread of the virus, hospitals’ capacity and staff could be overwhelmed. The state also recorded a record number of hospitalizations on Wednesday, after breaking its record the day before.

“With the strong spread we are seeing in the community, January and February will be our worst months for hospitalizations and new cases of COVID,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement. “It is more important than ever to follow the advice of doctors to wear our masks, wash our hands frequently and avoid crowds and gatherings.

Of the new cases reported Wednesday, 1,817 are confirmed and 610 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the county to 183,974 and probable cases to 22,828. The county’s death toll stands at 1,715.

The county said 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 recoveries, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use 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 Tuesday, 1,145 COVID-19 patients were in acute care at county hospitals. During the same period, 651 emergency room visits were for symptoms of the disease.

The county reported that in the past 30 days, 5,309 school-aged children and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at 677 separate K-12 schools.

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 in about one-third of all hospitalized patients, according to the county.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of new confirmed and probable daily cases for the reporting period Dec. 20-26 was 1,637. The figure is calculated based on the date of COVID-19 test collection, 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, 27.2% 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, when 26.5% of these patients tested positive.

Of the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the county, about 22% are associated with long-term care facilities.

State-wide data

Statewide, 23,630 other cases and 326 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Wednesday. Texas has now reported a total of 1,867,163 cases and 28,545 deaths.

Of the new cases, 19,535 were confirmed and 4,095 were probable. The state has reported 1,646,382 confirmed cases and 220,781 probable cases.

The state also added 279 older confirmed cases and 101 older probable cases recently reported by labs.

There are 13,628 patients with COVID-19 in Texas hospitals – a record – including 4,045 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The statewide seven-day average positivity rate for molecular testing, based on the date of specimen collection, was 20.2% on Wednesday. State health officials have said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate rate of positivity.

For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 15.1%.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 3,410 coronavirus cases and 12 new deaths on Wednesday.

The latest victims included three Arlington residents: two men, one in his sixties and one in his 90s, and a woman in her 80s. Three women from Fort Worth also died, including two in their 80s and one in their 90s.

The remaining victims were a man from Mansfield in her 80s, a man from Bedford in her 80s, a woman from North Richland Hills in her 80s, a woman in her 80s who lived in unincorporated Tarrant County, a Hurst woman in her 90s and Euless man in her 90s.

County officials said a previously recorded COVID-19 death in Colleyville has since been identified as an Arlington resident. One death recorded in Hurst was later discovered to be an out-of-county resident.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 165,288, including 144,103 confirmed cases, 21,185 probable cases and 118,933 recoveries. The death toll stands at 1561.

According to figures on Wednesday’s county dashboard, 1,489 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 1,036 coronavirus cases and six new COVID-19 deaths to Collin County’s totals on Wednesday. The county has now recorded 53,731 cases and a death toll of 388.

No details on the latest casualties were available.

Of the new cases, 771 were confirmed and 265 were probable. Collin County has recorded 47,851 confirmed cases and 5,880 probable cases. According to state data, the county has 5,387 active cases and has recorded 42,464 recoveries.

The county’s coronavirus dashboard only provides total hospitalizations, now at 546.

Denton County

Denton County reported 647 cases of the coronavirus – of which 621 are active – and six new deaths on Wednesday.

The latest deaths include three Lewisville residents: a man in his 60s, a man in his 60s and a woman over 80. female, both over 80 years old.

The new cases reported bring the county’s total to 41,409, with 13,046 ongoing and 28,139 in recovery. They also bring the total number of molecular cases to 33,870 and antigen cases to 7,539.

The county’s death toll stands at 224.

There are 216 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, the county reports.

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: 7,159 cases (6,026 confirmed and 1,133 probable), 58 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 10,121 cases (8,868 confirmed and 1,253 probable), 131 deaths.
• Ellis County: 14,355 cases (12,669 confirmed and 1,686 probable), 179 deaths.
• Johnson County: 12,165 cases (10,828 confirmed and 1,337 probable), 170 deaths.

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