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Dallas County officials reported 508 more confirmed coronavirus cases in their update Friday, which included numbers for two days after a software upgrade prevented the county from releasing data Thursday.
Two new COVID-19 deaths were also reported. The victims were a Dallas woman and a Garland woman, both in their 70s.
County Judge Clay Jenkins said the health department’s new data platform will allow for better contact tracing.
“We expect that this transition, that has led to a disruption in our reporting numbers …, will be leveled out and resolved over the weekend,” he said in a written statement.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 82,918. The county’s death toll stands at 1,026.
Dallas County also reported 204 probable cases Friday, bringing the total number of probable cases to 4,294. There have been 13 probable COVID-19 deaths.
Probable cases and deaths include people who had a positive antigen test (sometimes called rapid tests); had antibodies for the virus; or had COVID-19 symptoms and contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.
While other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, saying it’s 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 previous 24 hours, 242 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county, and 362 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.
Jenkins also noted in the statement that there may have been an overcount in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county for August and September but that the error has been corrected for the most recent count.
Statewide data
Across the state, 2,729 more cases and 72 COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday. Texas has now reported 756,004 confirmed cases and 15,895 fatalities.
There are 3,227 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 830 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 6.6% as of Thursday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested will provide 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 7.4% 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 5.9% percent, according to its dashboard.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said that positivity rate data based on lab results and new cases will likely be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.
Tarrant County
Tarrant County reported 352 coronavirus cases and four new deaths Friday.
The latest victims were two Fort Worth women, in their 40s and 80s, a Mansfield Woman in her 90s and a White Settlement man in his 50s.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 51,081, including 3,670 probable cases. The death toll stands at 670, and 44,374 people have recovered.
According to the county dashboard, 347 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
Collin County added 45 coronavirus cases Friday, bringing its total to 14,154. The county did not report any new deaths, leaving the toll at 150.
The county has 965 active cases of the virus — including 96 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard — and has recorded 13,189 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 residents that it has low confidence in the numbers the state is providing.
Denton County
Denton County reported 65 coronavirus cases — of which 53 are active — on Friday.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the county’s toll at 109.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 12,383, including 1,613 that are active and 10,661 that are recoveries. There are 25 COVID-19 patients still 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: 1,659 cases, 28 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 3,196 cases, 57 deaths.
- Ellis County: 4,472 cases, 68 deaths.
- Johnson County: 3,141 cases, 53 deaths.