Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 2 deaths and 287 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Sep. 30.  The total case count in Dallas County jumped to 82,410 with 1,024 total deaths to date.

The total number of probable cases in Dallas County is 4,090, including 13 probable deaths from COVID-19.

The total new cases today include 164 from Texas Department of State Health Services were from August (2) and September (162).

The additional deaths being reported today in Dallas County are:

A woman in her 30’s who was a resident of the city of Dallas. She 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 Duncanville. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse released information on six COVID-19 cases today. Number 302 through 306 are in Dallas county and include a 40-year-old woman, a 57-year-old man, an 18-year-old man, a 52-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl. Case number 307 is an 80-year-old woman in Collin County.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 38 was 307, an increase from the previous daily average of 261 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 237 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 13% 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 330 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending Tuesday, Sept. 29. Emergency room visits for the 24-hour period ending Sept 29 were 394, or 16% of all emergency department visits in the county according to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

“Today’s numbers include 247 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, 38 probable cases and two deaths: one woman in her 30s and another in her 60s. Our numbers in Dallas County are now moving higher and that makes it very important that we all exercise good decision making. This includes wearing our mask one hundred percent of the time and maintaining six-foot distancing, washing our hands regularly, avoiding unnecessary exposures, and avoiding indoor activities where the mask cannot be worn one hundred percent of the time.

 The fall can lead to a good situation with the weather cooling and more opportunities to space out outdoors. However, over the last two weeks, increased capacities at retail establishments and a letting down of the guard at functions at home, along with some outbreaks at schools (although those numbers have been manageable), and a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in people 18-22, both in college and not in college, has led to the stop of our improvement. These increases now threaten to push us back into the sort of numbers that we saw in August if we don’t all work together to make smart decisions,”,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]