Dallas County Health and Human Services reported one death and 504 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Oct 14.  The county has reported 1,058 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 88,036.

The county is also reporting a total of 4,424 probable cases and 13 probable deaths.

The total new cases today include 258 from Texas Department of State Health Services for September (11) and October (247).

The death being reported in Dallas County a woman in her 80’s who was a resident of the city of Dallas. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 40 was 374, an increase from the previous daily average of 346 for CDC week 39. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 10.0% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 40.

A provisional total of 283 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 40 (week ending10/03/2020), 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 367 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Tuesday, October 13. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 431 for the 24-hour period ending on Monday, October 12, which represents around 15 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

“Today we see another high number of new COVID-19 cases with the numbers today being 454 confirmed cases and 50 probable cases for a total of 504 additional cases. The increase in hospitalizations, and new COVID 19 positive cases, as well as other metrics like the R-naught factor being above 1 for several weeks, has led the Public Health Committee to recommend a return to ‘Red’ on our color-coded chart, which can be found at www.DallasCountyCovid.org. With a new and quickly escalating wave of COVID-19 cases hitting North Texas, it is more important than ever that we make good decisions. Things that doctors recommend as safe and permissible in ‘Orange,’ they recommend against in ‘Red.’ These things include dining in restaurants and personal grooming services, among other activities.

One activity that is not affected by the move to ‘Red’ is voting. We’ve already had two elections, a primary and a runoff election during COVID-19, both of which took place under a ‘Red’ (Stay Home Stay Safe) recommendation from the Public Health Committee. There has been no known spread from voting or cases attributed back to polling places and this we believe is due to the extraordinary measures everyone is taking to keep you safe at the polls. Your fellow voters are wearing their masks and the County has spent millions of dollars on disinfectants, plexiglass screens and other precautions to ensure that voters are safe. You can go to www.DallasCountyVotes.org to see a color-coded map that shows which polls are least crowded and where voting can be done quickly and also download a sample ballot too.

The color-coded chart from the Public Health Committee is intended not to tell you what is legal, but rather what is safe. I encourage businesses and individuals to look at the color-coded chart to determine what activities are recommended by doctors who specialize in the fields of infectious disease, public health and epidemiology. There is also a School Health Committee that has set out recommendations for parents as far as in-person vs. virtual school learning options and extracurricular activities by color-coded chart as well which can be found here.

We encourage everyone to make their best decisions: wear your mask, maintain six-foot distance, and avoid large crowds. We must reverse the trend now while we have pleasant weather outside and an opportunity to do activities outside. We know that when people are forced inside with COVID-19, such as when it gets too cold for people to enjoy the outdoors later in the winter, the chance for spread increases due to the poor circulation of indoor air and there’s less sunlight to kill virus remnants left on handles and other surfaces,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]