Dallas County Health and Human Services reported two deaths and 339 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, yesterday, Oct 7.  The county has reported 1,040 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 84,951.

The total new cases today include 232 from Texas Department of State Health Services, including cases from July (2), August (2), September (13) and October (215).

The two deaths being reported today in Dallas County are:

A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the city of Dallas. He expired in an area hospital ED and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 80’s who was a resident of the city of Richardson. He had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse added four new COVID cases yesterday. All are in Dallas County males and include a 15-year-old, 24-year-old, 43-year-old and 50-year-old.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 39 was 348, an increase from the previous daily average of 316 for CDC week 38. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 10.7% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 39.

A provisional total of 252 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 39 (week ending 9/26/2020), 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 12% 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 284 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Tuesday, October 6. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 544 for the 24 hour period ending on Tuesday, October 6, which represents around 20 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

Yesterday’s press release from the county is:

“Today’s numbers continue an upward trajectory that we are seeing in both new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, ED visits and the number of patients on ventilators. This, while the number of people getting tested at our free COVID-19 test sites remains low. Please don’t wait until you or a loved one becomes infected or your business sustains an outbreak before you take the advice of local medical experts and the CDC to wear a mask when around others outside your home, maintain six-foot distance and avoid unnecessary crowds.

We are seeing increased cases coming not only from businesses as the Governor has increased occupancy limits but also from home and backyard get-togethers. It’s understandable that the public would falsely believe that the numbers are going down when the Governor is reopening businesses and therefore people have loosened their guard for their home gatherings, but this would be a mistake according to DFW health experts because the fact is the numbers are going up. We must remain vigilant to the simple safeguards that will keep our community safe. There is increasing evidence that masking protects the wearer and those around them so please wear your mask and resist the urge to attend or have large gatherings of any type,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]