Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
Dallas County crossed the 800-death threshold with 13 new COVID-19 deaths reported Thursday. The county also recorded 641 new coronavirus cases.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a news conference that the county continues to see a steady decline in new cases after posting record highs in early and mid-July.
“Today you may notice it is a lot higher than yesterday, but when you look at the seven-day trends, they are going in the right direction. They’re going down,” he said.
Jenkins said the county has piled up 360 COVID-19 deaths in the last month.
Nine of the deaths Thursday were of Dallas residents, including a man and woman in their 50s, a man and two women in their 60s, two women in their 70s, and two women in their 80s, one of whom lived at a long-term care facility. The remaining deaths were of a Garland man in his 30s, a Farmers Branch man in his 50s, a Garland man in his 60s and a Garland man in his 80s.
“Each life that is lost is, of course, one too many,” Jenkins said.
This raises the county’s total confirmed deaths to 807 and cases to 56,428. The county does not report recoveries.
The county also reported 109 new probable cases of the virus, for a total of 2,469, including seven probable deaths. Dallas County counts probable cases separately and does not include them in its confirmed case totals.
“When you think of probable cases, think mostly of a family where one person has tested positive and another family member has the same symptoms but has not gotten a test,” Jenkins said.
Hospitalizations for the virus were at 535 Wednesday, and emergency-room visits for symptoms — 607 — represented about 26% of all visits.
Jenkins said the county has seen a decline in hospitalization numbers after they hovered around 700 a day in late July. ER visits are also down from the record 844 seen on July 14.
“While this is all very encouraging, I’ll caution you that even with the recent decreases, these numbers are still much, much higher … than they were May 1st,” Jenkins said.
Statewide, Texas reported 255 new deaths and 6,755 cases Thursday. The state’s totals are now at 513,575 coronavirus cases, 9,289 deaths and an estimated 375,760 recoveries, according to data from the Department of State Health Services.
Hospitalizations for the state are at 6,879, with 1,200 in Dallas-Fort Worth area hospitals, according to the data.
Jenkins said the positivity number for tests is “very bad” in Texas, at 16.08% on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he noted, says the county needs a positivity rate of about 5% to show that testing is adequate and not made up of people who are sickest.
Dallas County officials do not have the positivity rate from all private labs in the county, Jenkins said. However, the county has the rate for hospitals, which is slightly lower than 16%.
He said the county expanded its testing criteria at county-run testing sites to include more people because of the positivity rate. Testing at the sites is down 40%, he said.
Dr. Philip Huang noted that youth who are using vaping products or are smoking have an elevated risk for getting coronavirus. A Stanford University study, he said, indicated that they are 5 to 7 times more likely to get coronavirus.
Huang said the county’s decrease in cases has correlated with a drop in what’s known as the “R0 number.”
Jenkins said the county is looking at the R0 — pronounced “R-naught” — score to determine how much the virus is reproducing in the community or how many people someone with COVID-19 could infect.
The county currently has a .087 score, he said, meaning that if 100 people get sick, they presumably will spread it to 87 people, leading to a decline.
Jenkins also said that if a small amount of people stop taking precautions, cases could increase.
“It just takes two or three percent of them to throw us all back into the frying pan, so we’ve got to keep that resolve.”
Tarrant County
The county reported eight new COVID-19 deaths Thursday and 355 cases.
Five of the victims are Fort Worth residents, including a man in his 50s, a woman in her 70s and three women in their 80s. The remaining deaths are of a Grapevine man in his 80s, an Azle man in his 60s and a Kennedale woman in her 60s. All had underlying health conditions.
The county’s totals rose to 442 deaths and 35,129 cases. Of the total cases, 1,726 of them are considered probable.
There are 405 people hospitalized with the virus and an estimated 25,045 have recovered, according to county data.
Collin County
The county reported 149 new coronavirus cases Thursday and its 94th death — a McKinney man in his 60s.
The county now has reported 8,445 confirmed cases. According to county data, 144 people are hospitalized with the virus while 5,289 have recovered.
Denton County
Seven new COVID-19 deaths and 118 new coronavirus cases were announced Thursday.
Officials said the deaths include a Northlake man in his 70s; a Little Elm man in his 50s; a man in his 60s from southeast unincorporated Denton County; a woman over 80 who lived at Countryside Nursing and Rehabilitation in Pilot Point; a woman and man over 80 who lived at The Vintage Health Care Center in Denton; and a woman in her 70s who lived at Cottonwood Nursing and Rehabilitation in Denton.
“Though there have been a number of deaths reported this week in Denton County, we remain cautiously optimistic about fewer new cases of COVID-19 being reported and the ongoing increase in the number of recoveries,” said Denton County Judge Andy Eads.
There are a total of 80 COVID-19 deaths in the county and 8,077 confirmed cases
Hospitalizations are at 42, while 5,103 people have recovered, according to county data.
Other counties
The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for other North Texas counties. Some of them may not report updates each day. The latest numbers are:
- Rockwall County: 1,057 cases, 18 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 2,364 cases, 28 deaths.
- Ellis County: 3,244 cases, 48 deaths.
- Johnson County: 2,073 cases, 31 deaths.