1,814 new Covid-19 cases and 23 additional deaths confirmed in Dallas County

Dallas County, Texas – Dallas County on Monday reported 1,814 more coronavirus cases and 23 deaths Monday.

Eleven of the victims were Dallas residents. Six of them were men: one in his 40s who was found in his home, two in their 60s, two in their 70s and one in his 80s. The five Dallas women who died included two in their 60s, one in her 70s and two in their 90s.

The other 12 fatalities were a Grand Prairie man in his 40s, a Desoto woman in her 40s, a Hutchins man in his 50s, a Lancaster man in his 60s, a Grand Prairie man in his 60s, a Mesquite man in his 60s, a Coppell man in his 70s, a Farmers Branch man in his 70s, three Mesquite men in their 80s, and an Irving woman in her 90s.

All but one victim had underlying health conditions.

Of the new cases reported Monday, 1,655 are confirmed and 159 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 156,266 and probable cases to 18,274. The county has recorded a total of 1,484 COVID-19 deaths.

The county has said it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and “household” results were included previously.

While other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use that metric.

The county said that over the last 30 days, there have been 6,050 COVID-19 cases reported in school-age children and staff members from more than 780 Dallas County schools. Of those cases, 603 were related to extracurricular activities, including athletics.

More than two-thirds of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization so far have been in people under 65, and diabetes has been an underlying condition in about one-third of all hospitalized patients, according to the county.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the Dec. 6 to Dec. 12 reporting period was 1,668. The figure is calculated by the date of the COVID-19 test collection, according to the county.

Dallas County doesn’t provide a positivity rate for all COVID-19 tests conducted in the area; county health officials have said they don’t have an accurate count of how many tests are conducted each day. But as of the county’s most recent reporting period, 19.7% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s a slight decrease from the previous reporting period, when 21.6% such patients tested positive.

There are 99 active long-term care facility outbreaks, the county said. In the last 30 days, there have been 39 COVID-19 outbreaks reported in congregate living facilities, including homeless shelters, group homes and halfway houses. One facility reported 89 cases since October, the county said.

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