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Dallas County reported 1,860 new coronavirus cases Thursday, breaking the county’s record for the highest number reported in a single day. Two more COVID-19 deaths were also reported.
Ellis County Constable Precinct 3 Curtis Polk Jr. speaks about his relocated office in the…
The county’s record comes three days after it last set a single-day high Monday. Texas also broke its single-day case record, recording more than 12,000 new cases statewide.
The latest Dallas County victims were an Irving woman in her 40s and a Grand Prairie woman in her 80s. Both had been critically ill in hospitals and had underlying health problems, officials said.
A week before Thanksgiving, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins urged people not to celebrate the holiday with anyone outside their household.
“Now is the time to make sacrifices for the greater good of our community,” he said in a written statement.
Of the cases reported Thursday, 1,804 are confirmed and 56 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 113,764 and probable cases to 10,403. The county has recorded 1,164 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 22 probable deaths.
The county recently announced it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and “household” results were included previously.
Although 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 Wednesday, 670 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 508 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease, which is about 20% of the total number of ER visits.
More than two-thirds of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization 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 latest reporting period, Nov. 1-7, was 1,078. 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, 15.3% 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 15% of such patients tested positive.
Of the county’s total confirmed COVID-19 deaths, about 24% are associated with long-term care facilities.
Statewide data
Across the state, 12,293 more cases — the most in a single day — and 230 COVID-19 deaths were reported Thursday, putting the statewide death toll above 20,000.
Texas has reported 1,060,883 confirmed cases and 20,113 fatalities.
There are 7,982 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,235 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott has rejected calls for the state to take more aggressive action against the pandemic or to allow local officials more control over the response.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 12.1% as of Thursday. 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 12.8% as of Thursday.
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 8.9%, 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 probably will be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.
Tarrant County
Tarrant County reported 1,777 coronavirus cases and seven new deaths Thursday.
The latest deaths include four Fort Worth residents: a man in his 50s, a woman in her 60s, and a man and woman, each in their 70s.
Three Arlington residents’ deaths were also reported: a woman in her 30s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s.
Six of the seven victims had underlying health problems, officials said.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 87,536, including 77,738 confirmed cases, 9,798 probable cases and 63,990 recoveries. The death toll stands at 818.
According to Thursday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 764 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
The state added 354 coronavirus cases to Collin County’s total Thursday, bringing the tally to 22,337. Four new COVID-19 fatalities also were reported, bringing the county’s death toll to 229.
No details about the latest victims were available.
According to state data, the county has 2,201 active cases of the virus and has recorded 20,136 recoveries.
The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 296.
Denton County
Denton County reported 336 coronavirus cases — of which 256 are active — and no new deaths Thursday.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 20,739, including 4,269 that are active and 16,324 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 146.
The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 17,837, while antigen cases stand at 2,902.
There are 113 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: 2,487 cases, 35 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 4,244 cases, 72 deaths.
- Ellis County: 6,008 cases, 103 deaths.
- Johnson County: 4,716 cases, 86 deaths.