Denton County reports 5 COVID-19 deaths; Dallas County reports 596 new cases, no deaths

Dallas County reported 597 more coronavirus cases Tuesday, all but one of which the county considers new. No new COVID-19 deaths were reported.

Labs either report coronavirus cases directly to the county health department or to the state health department, which then relays the information to individual counties. Of cases reported Tuesday, Dallas County health officials said 263 came from the state’s reporting system, including one from July and 262 from October. The remaining 334 cases were reported directly to the county health department.

“With numbers increasing, it’s very important that we all make good choices,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement. “We know what to do, we just need to do it.”

Jenkins reiterated calls for county residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus — including on Halloween.

“This is not a year where we want to trick-or-treat door to door or go to Halloween parties. It’s a year to spend Halloween with family,” Jenkins said.

Of the new cases reported Tuesday, 419 are confirmed cases and 178 are probable cases. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 94,358 and probable cases to 5,413. The county has recorded 1,101 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 14 probable COVID-19 deaths.

A spokeswoman recently said the county was counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases, though a few antibody and “household” results had been 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, saying it’s not a measurement used by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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, 473 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 358 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Oct. 11-17, was 525, an increase from the previous reporting period. The figure is calculated by the date of the COVID-19 test collection, according to the county.

The county reported that between Oct. 11 and 17, a total of 441 probable and confirmed cases were reported among school-age children, an increase from the previous reporting period.

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, 14.2% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s an increase from the previous reporting period, when 12.6% such patients tested positive.

Statewide data

Across the state, 7,055 more cases and 81 COVID-19 deaths were reported Tuesday. Texas has now reported 874,367 confirmed cases and 17,595 fatalities.

There are 5,512 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 1,475 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 9.4% as of Monday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.

The state also provides a positivity rate based on when lab results were reported to the state; that rate stood at 9.9% as of Monday.

Officials previously calculated Texas’ coronavirus positivity rate by dividing the most recent seven days of new positive test results by the most recent seven days of total new test results. By that measure, the positivity rate is now 8.1%, according to its dashboard.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said that positivity rate data based on lab results and new cases will likely be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.

PUBLIC HEALTH

What you need to know about coronavirus

BY WIRE SERVICES AND TOM STEELE

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 437 coronavirus cases and four new deaths Tuesday.

The latest deaths include three Fort Worth residents — a woman in her 60s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s. The other victim was a Benbrook woman in her 60s. All had underlying health problems.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 64,727, including 58,656 confirmed cases, 6,071 probable cases and 51,635 recoveries. The death toll stands at 723.

According to Tuesday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 528 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

Collin County added 115 coronavirus cases Tuesday, bringing its total to 17,883. The county also reported two new deaths, raising the toll to 177.

The county has 969 active cases of the virus — including 195 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard — and has recorded 16,914 recoveries.

Collin County, which receives its data from the Department of State Health Services since turning over case management in June, has a note on its dashboard warning residents that it has low confidence in the numbers the state is providing.

County Judge Chris Hill announced Tuesday he had tested positive for COVID-19.

“I was surprised when the test came back positive, because I really didn’t feel that bad,” Hill said in a statement. “In fact, I feel great today, but I will continue to follow the doctor’s orders and quarantine at home according to the CDC guidelines.”

He said his wife and children are not showing any symptoms but will also quarantine at home.

Denton County

Denton County reported five new deaths Tuesday — its highest single-day toll since it reported five deaths on Aug. 25. The county also reported 164 new coronavirus cases, of which 120 are active.

The latest victims include four residents of long-term care facilities — two women in their 80s and another in her 70s lived at Saddle Brook Memory Care Community in Frisco, as well as a man in his 70s who was a resident at the Denton State Supported Living Center.

The other victim was a woman in her 70s who lived in unincorporated northwest Denton County.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 16,437, including 2,807 that are active and 13,507 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 123.

The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 14,547, while antigen cases stand at 1,890.

There are 77 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, according to the county’s data.

Other counties

The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

The latest numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 1,939 cases, 32 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 3,543 cases, 56 deaths.
• Ellis County: 4,945 cases, 77 deaths.
• Johnson County: 3,656 cases, 65 deaths.