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Dallas County on Tuesday reported 2,366 more coronavirus cases, all of them considered new. Thirty new COVID-19 deaths also were reported.
The city will get 2,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine by Christmas Day, officials said.
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.
Statewide data
Across the state, 19,925 more cases and 191 COVID-19 deaths were reported Tuesday. Texas has now reported 1,611,873 total cases and 25,606 fatalities.
Of the new cases, 16,607 were confirmed and 3,318 were probable. The state has reported 1,430,291 confirmed cases and 181,582 probable cases.
The state also added 1,125 older confirmed cases and 97 older probable cases that were recently reported by labs.
There are 10,299 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 3,142 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
On Tuesday, 20.13% of patients in the hospital region covering the D-FW area were COVID-19 patients, according to the state dashboard.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide for molecular tests, based on the date of specimen collection, was 14.11% as of Monday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.
For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 9.22%.
Tarrant County
Tarrant County reported 1,500 coronavirus cases and 16 new deaths Tuesday.
Details about the victims were not immediately available.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 134,091, including 117,237 confirmed cases, 16,854 probable cases and 98,313 recoveries. The death toll stands at 1,378.
According to Tuesday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 1,139 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
The state added 1,065 coronavirus cases to Collin County’s total Monday, bringing the tally to 41,965. Eight new COVID-19 fatalities were reported, bringing the county’s death toll to 334.
Of the new cases, 959 were confirmed and 106 were probable. Collin County has recorded 37,966 confirmed cases and 3,999 probable cases.
According to state data, the county has 4,162 active cases of the virus and has recorded 33,804 recoveries.
The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 440.
Denton County
Denton County reported 525 coronavirus cases — of which 496 are active — and no new deaths Tuesday.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 35,554, including 11,646 that are active and 23,724 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 184.
The newly reported cases also raise the county’s total molecular cases to 29,373, while antigen cases stand at 6,181.
There are 156 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: 5,266 cases (4,359 confirmed and 907 probable), 47 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 7,852 cases (6,839 confirmed and 1,013 probable), 107 deaths.
- Ellis County: 11,023 cases (9,770 confirmed and 1,253 probable), 145 deaths.
- Johnson County: 9,181 cases (8,161 confirmed and 1,020 probable), 138 deaths.