2,366 new Covid-19 cases added in Dallas County

Dallas, Texas – Dallas County on Tuesday reported 2,366 more coronavirus cases, all of them considered new. Thirty new COVID-19 deaths also were reported.

Seven of the victims were Dallas residents: two men in their 60s, two women in their 70s and three men in their 80s.

Eight of the victims were Garland residents: two men in their 50s, a man and two women in their 70s, two men in their 80s and a man in his 90s.

The other 15 fatalities were a Farmers Branch man in his 50s, an Irving man in his 60s who died at home, a Mesquite woman in her 60s, an Irving woman in her 60s, a Mesquite man in his 60s, a Rowlett man in his 60s, a Mesquite woman in her 70s, an Irving woman in her 70s, a DeSoto man in his 70s, a Mesquite man in his 70s, a Rowlett woman in her 70s, a Lancaster man in his 80s, a Grand Prairie man in his 80s, a DeSoto man in his 80s and an Irving man in his 90s.

All but seven victims had underlying health conditions.

Of the new cases reported Tuesday, 2,088 are confirmed and 278 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 158,354 and probable cases to 18,552. The county has recorded a total of 1,514 COVID-19 deaths.

“With the holidays approaching and unprecedented high case counts, we are echoing the requests of our public health community, hospitals and our health care heroes that everyone make sacrifices this year to protect our community and save lives,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a prepared statement.

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.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and emergency room visits as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, 494 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease. During the same period, 1,000 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county.

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 a 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. 6-12 reporting period was 1,668 — or a rate of 62.9 daily new cases for every 100,000 residents. The figure is calculated by the date of the test collection, according to the county.

Dallas County doesn’t provide a positivity rate for all coronavirus tests conducted in the area; county health officials have said they don’t have an accurate count of how many 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 down 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 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.

The county said it would not be releasing new data Thursday and Friday due to the holiday. It will resume reporting new numbers Saturday, which will include data processed through Wednesday evening. Sunday’s report will include data from Thursday through Saturday.