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Dallas County has not yet issued its coronavirus data for Saturday. Meanwhile, cases in Tarrant County continue to soar, with officials announcing a single-day record on Saturday.
On Friday, Dallas County reported 1,269 positive coronavirus cases — one of the county’s highest daily totals since its deadly peak in July.
The county had reported 100,628 total confirmed cases and 8,003 cumulative probable cases through Friday. It also had recorded 1,127 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 18 probable deaths.
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 24-hour period that ended Thursday, 478 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 457 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. 18-24, was 733. 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, 15.4% 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 14.0% such patients tested positive.
Statewide data
The Texas Department of State Health Services on Saturday reported 7,677 more coronavirus cases and 111 more COVID-19 deaths.
There are 6,068 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 1,559 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 11.3% as of Friday. 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 stood at 11.5% as of Friday.
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 10%, according to the state 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 1,062 coronavirus cases and three new deaths Saturday.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the case total is the county’s highest yet for a single day. The county reported more than 1,400 cases on Aug. 16, but the tally included cases backlogged at the Texas Department of State Health Services.
County officials have yet to release any information about the latest fatalities.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 73,180, including 65,426 confirmed cases, 7,754 probable cases and 56,715 recoveries. The death toll stands at 760.
According to Saturday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 535 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
Collin County added 109 coronavirus cases Saturday, bringing its total to 19,810. The county also reported three new deaths, raising the toll to 199.
The county has 1,545 active cases of the virus — including 195 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard — and has recorded 18,265 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 58 coronavirus cases — of which 36 are active — and no new deaths Saturday.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 18,114, including 3,331 that are active and 14,645 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 138.
The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 15,777, while antigen cases stand at 2,337.
There are 63 COVID-19 patients hospitalized — a decrease of 29 from Friday — 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: 2,106 cases, 34 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 3,760 cases, 66 deaths.
- Ellis County: 5,229 cases, 88 deaths.
- Johnson County: 4,007 cases, 71 deaths.