Home / Dallas News / Dallas County reports 3,303 more coronavirus cases, 6 deaths; Tarrant County reports 1,305 new cases, 5 fatalities

Dallas County reports 3,303 more coronavirus cases, 6 deaths; Tarrant County reports 1,305 new cases, 5 fatalities

Dallas County on Sunday reported 3,303 more coronavirus cases and six COVID-19 deaths.

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The latest fatalities were a woman in her 40s, a man in his 50s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 80s, and a man in his 90s, all of whom were Dallas residents and had been hospitalized. The sixth victim was a Mesquite man in his 50s who had been ill at a hospital. All six victims had underlying health problems, the county said.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, Sunday’s COVID-19 report included cases from Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.

“When you spread that out over the three days, it’s actually a lower number than we’ve been averaging for the last week and probably indicates less people getting tested as most testing facilities were closed Thursday and Friday,” Jenkins said.

Of the cases reported Sunday, 3,083 were confirmed and 220 were probable.

They raise the county’s total confirmed cases to 126,006 and probable cases to 12,090. The county has recorded 1,209 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 32 probable COVID-19 deaths.

The county 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.

The county reported that during the Nov. 15-21 period, 1,282 school-age children tested positive for COVID-19.

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 latest reporting period, Nov. 15-21, was 1,405 — a rate of 53.3 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. 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, 17% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s an increase from 16.8% the previous reporting period.

The county said Sunday that 20 active “clusters” of cases in homeless shelters and group homes have been reported in the last 30 days, totaling 167 reported coronavirus cases. One facility in the last week had 81 confirmed cases, the county said.

Over the last 30 days, there have been 818 COVID-19 cases reported from 90 long-term care facilities, the county said Sunday. Of the cases, 29 people have died and 48 have been hospitalized.

Of the county’s total confirmed COVID-19 deaths, about 23% are associated with long-term care facilities.

Statewide data

Across the state, 6,041 more cases and 48 COVID-19 deaths were reported Sunday. Of the 6,041 new cases, 163 are considered older cases by the state, including one in Ellis County and one in Kaufman County.

Texas has now reported 1,157,273 confirmed cases and 21,357 fatalities.

There are 8,634 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,375 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Of all hospitalizations in the 19-county hospital region that covers the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 15.6% are COVID-19 patients, according to the state’s data. Sunday was the third day the state crossed the 15% threshold set by Gov. Greg Abbott in an Oct. 7 executive order that states businesses must scale back from 75% to 50% capacity if they are in a region where more than 15% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients for seven days in a row.

The area first hit the 15% threshold Friday after several record-setting days.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 11.1% as of Saturday. 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 11.33% as of Saturday.

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 9.4%, according to the state dashboard.

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

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 1,305 coronavirus cases and five new deaths Sunday.

The latest deaths include a man in his 90s and a man in his 70s from Fort Worth, a woman in her 80s and a man in his 70s from Arlington, and a man in his 60s with an unknown address. All had underlying health problems.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 97,294, including 86,052 confirmed cases, 11,242 probable cases and 68,950 recoveries. The death toll stands at 843.

Collin County

The state added 626 coronavirus cases in Collin County on Saturday, bringing the county’s total to 26,192. One new COVID-19 fatality also was reported, bringing the death toll to 253.

No details about the latest victim were available.

According to state data, the county has 3,295 active cases and has logged 22,897 recoveries.

COVID-19 hospitalizations total 276, according to the county’s dashboard.

Denton County

Denton County officials have said they will no longer report new coronavirus data on Sundays.

As of Saturday, the county had reported 23,276 cases, including 5,523 that were active and 17,605 that were recoveries. The death toll stood at 148.

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: 2,994 cases, 37 deaths.
  • Kaufman County: 4,900 cases, 80 deaths.
  • Ellis County: 6,898 cases, 115 deaths.
  • Johnson County: 5,407 cases, 105 deaths.

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