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Dallas County reported 533 more confirmed coronavirus cases Friday, including 531 which the county considers new and two from previous months. Four new COVID-19 deaths were also reported.
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 Friday, Dallas County health officials said 293 came from the state’s reporting system, including 291 from October and two from September. The remaining 240 cases were reported directly to the county health department.
The latest victims were three Dallas residents — a man in his 50s, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s — and a Seagoville man in his 80s.
County Judge Clay Jenkins noted in a written statement that the new data continued a trend of increasing cases, adding that hospitalizations and emergency-room visits are also headed in “the wrong direction.”
“At this point, you know what to do,” he said, referring to precautionary measures against spreading the virus like wearing masks and social distancing. “You just need to do it.”
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 92,197. The county’s confirmed death toll stands at 1,097.
Additionally, Dallas County reported 79 probable cases Friday, bringing the total number of probable cases to 4,898. The county has also reported 14 probable COVID-19 deaths.
A spokeswoman has said the county is now counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases, though a few antibody and “household” results had been 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, saying it is 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 24-hour period that ended Thursday, 450 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 463 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.
The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Oct. 4-10, was 482 — an increase from 385 the previous week. 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, 11.3% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s an increase from the previous reporting period, when 10.1% such patients tested positive.
Statewide data
Across the state, 5,760 more cases and 89 COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday. Texas has now reported 851,572 confirmed cases and 17,375 fatalities.
There are 5,065 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals — the most in two months — including 1,384 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 9.1% as of Thursday. 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 also stood at 9.1% 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 7.7%, 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 848 coronavirus cases — one of its highest single-day totals — and one new death Friday.
The latest death was a Fort Worth man in his 60s.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 62,375, including 56,578 confirmed cases, 5,797 probable cases and 50,328 recoveries. The death toll stands at 713.
According to the county dashboard, 454 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
Collin County added 195 coronavirus cases Friday, bringing its total to 17,443. The county did not report any new deaths, leaving its toll at 174.
The county has 875 active cases of the virus — including 163 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard.
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 207 coronavirus cases — of which 159 are active — on Friday.
No additional deaths were reported, leaving the county’s toll at 118.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 15,929, including 2,676 that are active and 13,135 that are recoveries.
The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 14,157, while antigen cases stand at 1,772.
There are 53 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: 1,869 cases, 32 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 3,462 cases, 55 deaths.
- Ellis County: 4,832 cases, 76 deaths.
- Johnson County: 3,530 cases, 63 deaths.