Dallas County tops 3,000 daily cases for 1st time; state opens therapeutic centers in North Texas

Dallas County on Saturday announced 3,194 coronavirus cases, all of them considered new and marking the first time the county has announced more than 3,000 in a day. Ten new COVID-19 deaths also were reported.

Meanwhile, the state announced Saturday that Fort Worth and Irving will each be home to centers where certain patients can seek therapeutic infusion to fight the virus.

In Dallas County, the latest victims included six residents of Dallas, including a man in his 60s, two men and a woman in their 70s, a man in his 80s, and a woman in her 90s.

Other victims included two men from Cedar Hill — one in his 60s and another in his 80s — as well as a Carrollton woman and Lewisville woman, both in their 80s.

All of the victims had high-risk underlying health conditions, according to the county.

“All of these numbers are leading to a lack of hospital bed capacity and a loss of your best chance for optimum care at our hospitals,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a prepared statement. “Our health-care heroes and everyone with an underlying condition of any kind needs your help to see us through these darkest days of the COVID pandemic.”

Of the new cases reported Saturday, 2,293 are confirmed and 901 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 190,580 and probable cases to 24,393. The county has recorded 1,766 confirmed 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.

While 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.

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 Friday, 1,183 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 561 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

Statewide

Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday announced that the Texas Division of Emergency Management had set up two new COVID-19 therapeutic infusion centers in Fort Worth and Irving.

The centers will offer Regeneron’s monoclonal antibodies and bamlanivimab to treat outpatient cases of COVID-19 for patients who meet certain criteria, such as being at a greater risk for the virus, and who have been referred by a physician.

Regeneron’s antibody cocktail was one of the treatments administered to President Donald Trump while he was hospitalized with the virus in October.

“Increasing access to COVID-19 therapeutic treatments is a proven strategy to reduce hospitalizations and save lives,” Abbott said in a prepared statement. “I thank our partners from the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council for working with the State of Texas to establish these infusion centers. Together, we will continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and keep our communities safe.”

In an effort to reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations, the state has already set up infusion centers in El Paso, Laredo, Harlingen and Austin.

Across the state, 22,698 more cases and 381 COVID-19 deaths were reported Saturday. Texas has now reported 1,938,551 total cases and 29,691 fatalities.

Of the new cases, 18,861 were confirmed and 3,837 were probable. The state has reported 1,703,634 confirmed cases and 234,917 probable cases.

The state also added 502 older confirmed cases and 90 older probable cases that were recently reported by labs.

There are 13,935 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 4,145 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide for molecular tests, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 20.46% as of Friday. 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 12.93%.

Health officials in Austin and Travis County announced Saturday plans to to open space in the Austin Convention Center to help deal with soaring COVID-19 patient numbers.

The Alternate Care Site in Austin was initially established during a summer surge of the coronavirus, but has not yet taken patients, according to a statement from the Austin-Travis County Health Authority.

”Activating the Alternate Care Site means that we believe that it is inevitable that the healthcare system in Central Texas will exceed capacity and will soon be overwhelmed,” said Dr. Jason Pickett, deputy medical director of the health authority.

The site is for patients who do not need high-level or intensive care, according to the statement. Patients needing high-level or intensive care will remain at hospitals.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 3,110 coronavirus cases and eight new deaths Saturday.

Details about the victims were not immediately available.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 173,840, including 150,990 confirmed cases, 22,850 probable cases and 124,161 recoveries. The death toll stands at 1,711.

According to the county’s dashboard, 1,524 people are hospitalized with the virus, as of Friday afternoon.

Collin County

The state added 977 coronavirus cases and 11 new COVID-19 fatalities to Collin County’s totals Saturday. The county has now posted 56,236 cases and a death toll of 416.

No details about the latest victims were available.

Of the new cases, 761 were confirmed and 216 were probable. Collin County has recorded 49,684 confirmed cases and 6,552 probable cases. According to state data, the county has 6,244 active cases and has recorded 43,440 recoveries.

The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 560.

Denton County

Denton County reported 399 coronavirus cases — of which 391 are active — and five new deaths Saturday.

The latest deaths include two men from Flower Mound — one in his 70s and another in his 80s — and a woman and two men in their 80s who were residents of Vista Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lewisville.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 43,107, including 13,604 that are active and 29,270 that are recoveries. They also raise total molecular cases to 35,111 and antigen cases to 7,996.

The county’s death toll stands at 233.

There were 227 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Friday, the county reports.

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: 7,481 cases (6,247 confirmed and 1,234 probable), 60 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 10,538 cases (9,181 confirmed and 1,357 probable), 141 deaths.
• Ellis County: 14,984 cases (13,191 confirmed and 1,793 probable), 183 deaths.
• Johnson County: 12,912 cases (11,492 confirmed and 1,420 probable), 183 deaths.