Dallas County Health and Human Services reported four deaths and 156 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Sep. 19 including one from April.  The total case count in Dallas County is 77,118 with 994 total deaths to date.

The total number of probable cases in Dallas County is 3,799, including 11 probable deaths from COVID-19.

The total new cases today include four from Texas Department of State Health Services in April (1 and September (3).

The four additional deaths being reported today in Dallas County are:

A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 60’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 70’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 37 was 240, a decrease from the previous daily average of 279 for CDC week 36.. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 10.8% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 37 (week ending 9/12/2020).

A provisional total of 156 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 37 (week ending 9/12/2020), an increase from the previous week for this age group. The percentage of cases occurring in young adults aged 18 to 22 years has increased to 14% over the past 2 weeks.

Of the cases requiring hospitalization to date, more than two-thirds(66%) have been under 65 years of age, and over half reported having a chronic health condition. Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

“Today we report 155 new COVID-19 positive cases and four additional deaths. We are now giving you two weekly totals for daily averages for tests and deaths. Because of continued problems with the state’s electronic laboratory reporting system, the lagging number that we gave you yesterday from CDC week 37 is the more accurate number that relies on checking each case’s date of test and stripping out any cases that may be considered old cases and adding in any cases that may be late arriving but considered appropriate cases for that time period.

We continue to provide a rough number of the total preliminary numbers of “new” positive COVID-19 cases for the week from Sunday through Saturday by dividing the total number of cases by seven and providing the total number of deaths reported. That number for this week is 256 average cases per day and 24 deaths. That compares to 202 average cases per day and 26 deaths under this metric from one week ago, and 287 cases and 45 deaths the week before that.

To see less COVID-19 cases, more businesses open and thrive, and more kids in school, it’s very important that you continue to wear your mask and keep six feet distance, wash your hands frequently, avoid unnecessary trips, and avoid any indoor activities where people are not wearing their mask one hundred percent of the time. If we all make smart decisions, together we can get to a better place,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]