Dallas County Health and Human Services reported four deaths and 510 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Oct 20. The county has reported 1,089 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 90,790.
The county is also reporting a total of 4,669 probable cases and 13 probable deaths.
The total new cases include 268 from Texas Department of State Health Services, all in October.
The additional four deaths being reported today include the following:
A man in his 30’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He had been critically ill in an area hospital.
A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the City of Richardson. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
A woman in her 70’s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Dallas. She 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 a long-term care facility in the City of Dallas. He had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.
The city of Sachse reported its 379th and 380th cases today, both in Dallas County. One is a 17-year-old girl and the second is a 52-year-old woman.
The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 41 was 482, an increase from the previous daily average of 385 for CDC week 40. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 11.3% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 41.
A provisional total of 406 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 41 (week ending10/10/2020), which is over twice the number of children diagnosed in this age group four weeks earlier (9/12/20).
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. About 24% have been associated with long-term care facilities.
Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. There were 404 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Monday, October 19. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 419 for the 24-hour period ending on Monday, October 19, which represents around 19 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. Increasing hospitalizations continue to be a concern and show the severity of this virus. Individual behavior change is necessary to decrease the severity of this wave.
“We are seeing a continual increase in the number of COVID-19 cases confirmed by testing each day and by the number of people that are showing up at our hospitals as the numbers in the chart from CDC week 41 indicate. We know what to do to curb the spread of coronavirus: masking and avoiding crowds, six-foot distance and handwashing. We just need to do it. As we’ve seen before and are about to see again, absent a drastic change in behavior, the numbers go up very rapidly but go down slowly. We do not want to be at a place with a high COVID-19 infection rate when the temperatures turn cold and more people are forced inside so please do your part to flatten the curve,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
From Staff Reports • [email protected]
0 Comments