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Dallas County reported 1,248 more coronavirus cases Monday, all considered to be new cases. Two COVID-19 deaths were also reported.
The latest victims were a Dallas man in his 40s and a Grand Prairie man in his 60s. Both had underlying health problems that put them at higher risk of complications from COVID-19.
County Judge Clay Jenkins urged residents to take precautions against spreading the virus.
“The steep rise in cases that we’re seeing seriously threatens those with high-risk health conditions among us,” he said in a written statement.
Monday’s new cases were among the most the county has reported on a single day.
Of the new cases reported Monday, 1,095 are confirmed and 153 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 103,184 and probable cases to 8,419. The county has recorded 1,134 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 18 probable deaths.
A spokeswoman said the county was counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases, though a few antibody and “household” results had been included previously.
Although other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not, 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. Because of a lag in weekend reporting, those numbers will be available Tuesday.
The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Oct. 25-31, was 740. 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, 14.9% 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 15.4% such patients tested positive.
Statewide data
Across the state, 3,816 more cases and 26 COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday. Texas has reported 963,019 confirmed cases and 18,769 fatalities.
There are 6,103 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 1,631 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 11.2% as of Sunday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.
Gov. Greg Abbott has said a positivity rate above 10% is cause for concern.
The state also provides a positivity rate based on when lab results were reported to the state; that rate stood at 12.2% as of Sunday.
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 9%, according to the state dashboard.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said 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 1,525 coronavirus cases Monday, a single-day high. No new deaths were reported.
The new record comes two days after Tarrant County broke its previous single-day total with 1,062 new cases Saturday.
Tarrant County reported more than 1,400 cases Aug. 16, but that day’s tally included a backlog from the state health department. A spokesman for Tarrant County Public Health confirmed there were no backlogged cases in Monday’s total.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 75,161, including 67,192 confirmed cases, 7,969 probable cases and 57,914 recoveries. The death toll stands at 763.
According to Monday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 566 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Collin County
Collin County added 148 coronavirus cases Monday, bringing its total to 20,313. The county did not report any new deaths, leaving the toll at 200.
The county has 1,809 active cases of the virus — including 200 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 276 coronavirus cases — of which 186 are active — Monday. No additional deaths were reported.
The new cases were the most in a single day in Denton County, excluding days when large backlogs were reported.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 18,390, including 3,424 that are active and 14,828 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 138.
The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 15,967, while antigen cases stand at 2,423.
There are 97 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: 2,106 cases, 34 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 3,706 cases, 67 deaths.
- Ellis County: 5,229 cases, 91 deaths.
- Johnson County: 4,007 cases, 71 deaths.