Dallas County adds 418 COVID-19 cases and 4 deaths; Tarrant County reports most cases in a single day in almost two months

Dallas County reported 418 more confirmed coronavirus cases Sunday, including 395 health officials consider new and 23 from previous months.

Four new COVID-19 deaths were also reported.

The latest victims include three city of Dallas residents who lived in long-term care facilities — a woman in her 70s and a man and woman in their 90s. The other victim was a Garland man in his 50s. Only the older Dallas woman did not have underlying health problems.

Labs either report coronavirus cases directly to the county health department or to the state health department, which then relays the information to individual counties. Of cases reported Sunday, Dallas County health officials said 336 came from the state’s reporting system, including one from May, one from July, two from August, 19 from September and 323 from October. The remaining 82 cases were reported directly to the county health department.

A spokeswoman said Friday that the countywide totals for confirmed and probable cases would be unclear for a few days because of an ongoing transition between data platforms. But the latest figures available online indicate the total confirmed cases is 86,547.

Additionally, Dallas County reported 15 probable cases Sunday. County health department director Dr. Philip Huang has said probable cases 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. But a county spokeswoman said last week that the county was counting only positive antigen tests as probable cases, though a few antibody and “households” results had been included.

The county’s confirmed death toll stands at 1,052.

Although 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. County officials said hospitalization data will next be reported Tuesday.

County health officials have said recent data reflect increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations and ER visits. According to projections from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, both metrics are expected to increase in Dallas County and Tarrant County over the next two weeks, with hospitalizations anticipated to reach mid-August levels.

As of Tuesday, hospitalizations across North Texas had increased 15% in the previous seven days and 33% over the prior two weeks. Additionally, for the first time since peaking in early July, UT-Southwestern’s test positivity rate had stopped declining.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Sept. 27-Oct. 3, was 346. The figure is calculated by the date of the test collection, according to the county.

The county reported that during the same reporting period, 265 school-age children tested positive — an increase from the previous week.

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 tests are conducted each day. But as of the county’s most recent reporting period, 9.8% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s a decrease from the previous reporting period, when 10.7% of such patients tested positive.

Statewide data

Across the state, 2,262 more cases and 31 COVID-19 deaths were reported Sunday. Texas has now reported 792,478 confirmed cases and 16,557 fatalities.

There are 3,622 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 962 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 6.91% as of Saturday. 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 7.19% 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 7.62%, 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 probably will be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 794 coronavirus cases Sunday — its highest single-day total in nearly two months.

It also reported the death of a Fort Worth woman in her 70s who had underlying health problems.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 55,364, including 4,431 probable cases and 46,691 recoveries. The death toll stands at 693.

According to the county dashboard, 375 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

Collin County added 57 coronavirus cases Sunday, bringing its total to 16,208. The county also reported one new death, raising the toll to 165.

The county has 866 active cases of the virus — including 116 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard — and has recorded 15,342 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 officials have said they will no longer report new coronavirus data on Sundays.

As of Saturday, the county had reported 14,196 confirmed cases, including 1,935 that were active and 12,148 that were recoveries. The death toll stood at 113.

The county had reported 12,864 molecular cases, while antigen cases stood at 1,332.

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: 1,729 cases, 30 deaths
• Kaufman County: 3,265 cases, 49 deaths
• Ellis County: 4,574 cases, 71 deaths
• Johnson County: 3,277 cases, 56 deaths