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Dallas County reported 6,144 more coronavirus cases and 11 COVID-19 fatalities Sunday. The totals include data from Thursday through Saturday, the county said.
The latest victims who died were a Grand Prairie man in his 40s, a Dallas man in his 40s, two Dallas men in their 50s, a Lancaster woman in her 60s, a Dallas woman in her 60s, an Irving woman in her 80s, three Dallas women in their 80s and a Dallas man in his 80s.
Workers begin to remove shingles from what is known as Shingle Mountain, a pile
All of the victims had underlying health problems, and four were residents of long-term care facilities.
Of the new cases reported Sunday, 5,480 are confirmed and 664 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 166,758 and probable cases to 20,122. The county has recorded 1,565 COVID-19 deaths.
The county has said it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and “household” results were included previously.
Although other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use that metric.
Over the last 30 days, 4,955 school-age children tested positive for COVID-19 from 764 schools in Dallas County, the county said. Since March, 21 school nurses have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
More than two-thirds of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization so far have been in people under 65, and diabetes has been an underlying condition in about a third of all hospitalized patients, according to the county.
The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the Dec. 6 to Dec. 12 reporting period was 1,722. 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, 23.3% 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 19.7% such patients tested positive.
There are 100 active long-term care facility outbreaks, the county said. In the last 30 days, there have been 39 COVID-19 outbreaks reported in congregate living facilities, including homeless shelters, group homes and halfway houses. One facility reported 93 cases since October, the county said.
Of the county’s total confirmed COVID-19 deaths, about 22% are associated with long-term care facilities.
Statewide data
Across the state, 7,557 more cases and 51 COVID-19 deaths were reported Sunday. Texas has now reported 1,668,597 total cases and 26,472 fatalities.
Of the new cases, 6,105 were confirmed and 1,452 were probable. The state has reported 1,476,674 confirmed cases and 191,923 probable cases.
The state also added 415 older confirmed cases and 74 older probable cases that were recently reported by labs.
There are 10,886 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 3,368 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On Sunday, 22.44% of patients in the hospital region covering the D-FW area were COVID-19 patients.
The seven-day average positivity rate statewide for molecular tests, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 15.43% as of Saturday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.
For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 10.22%.
Tarrant County
Tarrant County reported 2,217 coronavirus cases and 18 new deaths Sunday.
The latest victims include six Arlington residents: two women in their 80s, a man in his 70s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 50s and a man in his 40s. Eleven Fort Worth residents were also among the latest deaths: a man and two women in their 90s, two men in their 80s, two women in their 70s, a woman and two men in their 60s and a woman in her 40s. The final victim was a woman from unincorporated Tarrant County in her 40s.
All but two of the victims had underlying health problems, the county said.
The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 138,010, including 120,506 confirmed cases, 17,504 probable cases and 101,111 recoveries. The death toll stands at 1,407.
According to Wednesday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 1,168 people were hospitalized with the virus. The dashboard includes a note that says the next full update to COVID-19 statistics will be Monday.
Collin County
The state added 508 coronavirus cases to Collin County’s total Sunday, bringing the county’s tally to 45,600. One new COVID-19 fatality was reported, bringing the death toll to 351.
Details about the latest victim were unavailable.
Of the new cases, 476 were confirmed and 32 were probable. Collin County has recorded 41,137 confirmed cases and 4,463 probable cases.
According to state data, the county has 4,234 active cases of the virus and has recorded 36,698 recoveries.
The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 464.
Denton County
Denton County officials have said they will no longer report new coronavirus data on Sundays.
As of Saturday, the county had reported 36,813 cases, including 12,064 that were active and 24,562 that were recoveries. The death toll stood at 187.
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: 5,777 cases (4,797 confirmed and 980 probable), 49 deaths.
- Kaufman County: 8,686 cases (7,576 confirmed and 1,110 probable), 112 deaths.
- Ellis County: 12,230 cases (10,781 confirmed and 1,449 probable), 159 deaths.
- Johnson County: 10,208 cases (9,024 confirmed and 1,184 probable), 149 deaths.