Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 2 deaths and 415 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Sep. 26.  The total case count in Dallas County jumped to 80,978 with 1,017 total deaths to date.

The total number of probable cases in Dallas County is 3,922, including 12 probable deaths from COVID-19.

The total new cases today include 266 from Texas Department of State Health Services in May (74), June (50), July (9), August (38) and September (95).

The additional 2 deaths being reported today in Dallas County are:

A man in his 30’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 70’s who was a resident of the City of Cedar Hill. He 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 38 was 296, an increase from the previous daily average of 258 for CDC week 37. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 11.9% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 38.

A provisional total of 225 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 38 (week ending 9/19/2020), 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% for the month of September.

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.

Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators in determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. There were 321 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Friday, September 25. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 341 for the 24-hour period ending on Friday, September 25, which represents around 14 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. While these numbers represent a significant decline from record highs in July, the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on our populations and health care systems remains.

“Today we have an additional 244 recent COVID-19 cases from all sources and 171 older cases from the state’s electronic laboratory reporting system. For the week, we had an average of 282 new cases per day and a total of 23 confirmed deaths. It is important to note that this figure uses the simple math of taking the number of preliminary new cases for the week and dividing by seven. The more accurate figures are the numbers that the epidemiology team does on Tuesdays and Fridays where we peel out the date of test collection, including those who have come in after the week concludes. For instance, we have 171 old cases today that will be slotted in by their date of test collection into the weeks when the test was performed. So, these weekly numbers of new cases are changing and that is evidenced in the Tuesday and Friday reports from Dallas County Health and Human Services epidemiology team. The numbers we give you today though give you a snapshot of whether we’ve increased or decreased from the same data set last week and in the week that just ended we saw an average of 282 cases versus 256 last week.

As I informed yesterday, our positivity rate has gone from 10% to 11.9% in one week and extra vigilance is warranted as more people crowd into indoor establishments making it more difficult to maintain proper spacing. Scientists say the key to being around people outside your home is threefold: masking, six-foot distancing, and frequent hand-washing. With the increasing crowds, the six-foot distancing is more of a challenge and it’s up to all of us to find the right activities that allow us to keep ourselves and the community safe,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]