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Dallas County’s rise in coronavirus cases continues to steepen; Texas logs biggest total in 3 months

Dallas County announced 866 more coronavirus cases Wednesday, all of them considered new. Two new deaths — one confirmed to be from COVID-19, one probable — also were reported.

Labs report coronavirus cases either directly to the county health department or to the state health department, which then relays the information to individual counties. Of cases reported Wednesday, Dallas County health officials said, 391 came from the state’s reporting system: 380 from October and 11 from November. The remaining 475 cases had been reported directly to the county health department.

The latest victims both had underlying health problems. They were a Garland man in his 30s who was found dead at a hotel and a Dallas man in his 70s who died in a hospital.

“Our daily numbers continue to climb as do our hospitalizations,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.

“If we all move from selfishness in doing the few things that doctors tell us are not safe to community protections, we can stem the tide of COVID,” he said.

Of the cases reported Wednesday, 687 were confirmed and 179 probable. They brought the county’s totals to 99,160 confirmed cases and 7,334 probable ones. The county has recorded 1,121 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 16 deaths probably tied to the disease.

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 of how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, saying that is 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 Tuesday, 478 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 585 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease — 22% of the county’s total ER visits, according to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

Statewide data

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Wednesday reported 9,049 more coronavirus cases — the state’s most in a single day since Aug. 4 — and 126 more COVID-19 deaths.

Texas has now reported 926,400 confirmed cases and 18,320 fatalities, according to the state’s dashboard.

The surging cases come as Johns Hopkins University data, which don’t match the state’s official numbers, show Texas has recorded the most positive coronavirus tests of any state in the U.S.

There are 5,872 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 1,557 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 10.6% as of Tuesday. 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 10.8% as of Tuesday.

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 9.3%, according to the state dashboard.

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

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 709 coronavirus cases and three new deaths Wednesday.

The latest victims all lived in Fort Worth and had underlying health problems. They were a woman in her 80s and a man and woman in their 60s.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 70,228 — 63,030 confirmed cases and 7,198 probable ones. There have been 54,981 recoveries. The death toll stood at 745.

According to Wednesday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 524 people were hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

Collin County added 284 coronavirus cases — one of the county’s highest daily totals of the pandemic — Wednesday, bringing its total to 19,189.

The county also reported one new death, raising the toll to 190.

The county had 1,367 active cases of the virus — including 172 people who were hospitalized, according to the county dashboard — and had recorded 17,822 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 that it has low confidence in the numbers the state is providing.

Denton County

Denton County reported 201 coronavirus cases — of which 141 were active — and no new deaths Wednesday.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 17,635, including 3,137 that are active and 14,360 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 138.

The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 15,415, while antigen cases stand at 2,220.

According to the county dashboard, 90 people were hospitalized with the virus in Denton County. It’s the highest that number has been since late July.

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: 2,059 cases, 33 deaths.
  • Kaufman County: 3,699 cases, 61 deaths.
  • Ellis County: 5,146 cases, 84 deaths
  • Johnson County: 3,926 cases, 68 deaths.

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