Dallas County reports 2,817 coronavirus cases, 24 deaths; Tarrant County adds 2,350 cases and 38 deaths

On Friday, grim numbers for the pandemic continued to rise in northern Texas and the state.

Dallas County has announced 2,817 new cases of coronavirus and 24 more deaths from COVID-19. But the daily death toll was significantly higher in Tarrant County, where 38 deaths and 2,350 cases have been reported.

For the third day in a row, Texas has reported at least 400 deaths from the virus. And the North Texas region of Dallas, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Rockwall and Tarrant counties totaled 5,001 deaths.

Eleven of the latest Dallas County victims were residents of Dallas: two men in their forties, two women in their fifties, two women in their sixties, two men and a woman in their sixties, and a man and woman in their fifties. One of the men in their 60s and the woman in their 40s were living in long-term care facilities.

Eight others lived in Mesquite: a man in his forties, a man in his fifties, a woman in his sixties, two men and a woman in his sixties, a woman in his forties and a man in his hundred. The man in their 50s, the woman in their 60s, one of the men in their 60s, the woman in their 50s and the man in their 100s were residents of long-term care facilities.

The other victims were two Garland men in their 70s; two Irving residents, a woman in her 50s who lived in a long-term care facility and a man in her 60s; and a Balch Springs man in his fifties.

All but the Balch Springs man and one of the Dallas men in their 60s had underlying health issues that put them at high risk for complications from the virus, officials said.

County Judge Clay Jenkins said thousands of people have been vaccinated every day this week. He noted that the Fair Park megasite vaccinations will be administered by appointment only from Saturday; Qualifying residents can register online at dallascounty.org/covid-19/covid-19-vaccination.php or by calling the county hotline at 469-749-9900.

Of the new cases reported on Friday, 2,153 are confirmed and 664 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the county to 203,897 and probable cases to 26,542. The county has recorded a total of 1,853 deaths from COVID-19.

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 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 Thursday, 1,140 COVID-19 patients were in acute care at county hospitals. During the same period, 518 emergency room visits were for symptoms of the disease.

State-wide data

Statewide, an additional 27,204 cases and 400 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Friday, including 26,334 new cases and 870 older cases recently reported by labs. Texas has now reported 2,072,903 total cases and 31,450 deaths.

Of the new cases, 21,343 were confirmed and 4,991 were probable. The state has reported 1,816,535 confirmed cases and 256,368 probable cases.

There are 13,953 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 3,988 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As of Thursday, 23.6% of patients in the hospital region covering the Dallas-Fort Worth area were COVID-19 patients, according to the state’s dashboard.

The statewide seven-day average positivity rate for molecular testing, based on the date the samples were collected, was 17.4% on Thursday. 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 11.9%.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 2,350 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths on Friday.

County officials said Friday’s higher death toll – 38 – stemmed from when Texas State Department health departments released data on death certificates. The number of deaths reported on Friday will be higher for this reason, the county said.

Seven of the deaths were from this month, while 31 were from December.

Nineteen of the victims were residents of Fort Worth: one man in his forties, three men in his fifties, three men and two women in their sixties, three men and three women in their sixties, two men in their fifties; and a man and a woman over 90 years old.

Nine others lived in Arlington: a man in his forties, a man in his fifties, a man in his sixties, two men in his sixties, a woman in his 80s and two men and a woman over 90.

The other victims were three residents of Bedford – a man and woman in their 80s and a woman over 90; two Mansfield residents – a man in his 60s and a woman over 90; two women from North Richland Hills in their 80s; an Azle man in his fifties; a Lakeside man in his sixties; and a man from Watauga in his 70s.

All but four of the victims had underlying high-risk conditions, health officials said.

The 2,350 new cases reported in Tarrant County bring its total to 187,863, including 162,386 confirmed cases, 25,477 probable cases and 132,350 recoveries. The death toll stands at 1825.

According to figures on Friday’s county dashboard, 1,488 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 524 coronavirus cases and 10 new COVID-19 deaths to Collin County’s totals on Friday. The county has now recorded 61,803 cases and a death toll of 461.

No details on the latest casualties were available.

Of the new cases, 288 were confirmed and 236 were probable. Collin County has recorded 53,570 confirmed cases and 8,233 probable cases. According to state data, the county recorded 47,659 recoveries.

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

Denton County

Denton County reported 471 cases of coronavirus – of which 437 are active – and 12 new deaths on Friday.

Four of the latest victims were residents of Carrollton: a man in his sixties and a man and two women over 80. One of the women resided at Atria Senior Living.

The other victims were a man from The Colony who was over 80, a Corinthian woman over 80, a Denton woman in her 60s, a Flower Mound man over 80 who lived in Avanti Senior Living, a Frisco woman over 80 who lived in Mustang Creek Estates, Krum man over 80, Little Elm man in her sixties and woman in her sixties who lived in the unincorporated county of Denton.

The newly reported cases bring the county total to 45,816, with 13,794 ongoing and 31,773 recovering. They also bring the total number of molecular cases to 37,193 and the antigen cases to 8,623.

The county’s death toll stands at 249.

There are 208 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: 8,129 cases (6,798 confirmed and 1,331 probable), 69 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 11,393 cases (9,926 confirmed and 1,467 probable), 149 deaths.
• Ellis County: 16,269 cases (14,352 confirmed and 1,917 probable), 192 deaths.
• Johnson County: 14,259 cases (12,727 confirmed and 1,532 probable), 203 deaths.