Dallas County Health and Human Services reported three deaths and 624 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Oct 28.  The county has reported 1,104 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 94,837.

The county is also reporting a total of 5,558 probable cases and 14 probable deaths.

The total new cases include 346 from Texas Department of State Health Services, all in October.

The additional three deaths reported today are:

A woman in her 60’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 Dallas. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 80’s who was a resident of the City of Irving. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse reported eight more positive cases; a 55, 59 and 76 year-old woman and a 22, 47, 57 and 58 year-old man, all in Dallas County, as well as a 78-year-old Collin County man.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 42 was 588, the highest daily average since July. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 14.2% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 42.

A provisional total of 493 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 42, about twice the number of children diagnosed in this age group 3 weeks earlier.

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 498 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Tuesday, October 27. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 485 for the 24-hour period ending on Tuesday, October 27, 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. 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.

“As our numbers continue to climb, I’ll remind you that we know what we need to do, we just need to do it: wear your mask and avoid crowds. Please make sure to have a safe Halloween and forgo trick-or-treating and Halloween parties this year for family activities. The number of school-aged children with COVID-19 has doubled over the last three weeks from 251 cases to 493 new cases (see Table 12) and this is a reminder of the importance of keeping our community safe by keeping our children safe and avoiding crowds and promoting masking.

The most recent medical models indicate that we’ll have above 1,000 new cases per day by Thanksgiving unless we change our behavior, push through the COVID fatigue, and go back to doing the things that we know will keep us safe. We don’t want to get into the holiday season when it gets colder, more people are inside, and there are more gatherings with people outside our home, during an extremely high COVID spike or we will be in for a bad holiday season and spring. Let’s all band together now and move from selfishness to sacrifice to put our families, our community and our economy in a safer, better place,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]