Dallas County Health and Human Services reported two deaths and 866 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, Nov 4.  The county has reported 1,120 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 99,160.

The county is also reporting a total of 7,334 probable cases and 16 probable deaths.

The total new cases include 391 from Texas Department of State Health Services, all in October, except 11 in November.

The additional two deaths reported Wednesday are:

A man in his 30’s who was a resident of the City of Garland. He was found deceased at a hotel 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 critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse reported cases 437 through 442. These include a 25 and 54 year-old men and a 36-year-old woman in Dallas County, as well as a 12-year-old boy, an 18-year-old woman and 26-year-old man in Collin County.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 43 has increased to 733 — the highest daily average of new cases since July. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 has increased to 15.4% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 43 (week ending 10/24/20). A provisional total of 693 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 43 – over twice the numbers of children diagnosed in this age group 3 weeks earlier (CDC week ending 10/3/2020).

Of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization to date, more than two-thirds have been under 65 years of age. Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Of the total confirmed deaths reported to date, about 24% have been associated with long-term care facilities. New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with a more detailed summary report updated Tuesdays and Fridays.

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 478 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Tuesday, November 3. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 585 for the same time period, 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. Due to a reporting omission, we believe these numbers are actually higher than reflected. Forecasting from UTSW still shows potential for substant ial growth in hospitalizations.

“Today we have 866 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths including one man in his 30’s who was found deceased at a hotel. Our daily numbers continue to climb as do our hospitalizations, and it’s more important now than ever that we wear our mask and avoid crowds. We know what to do, we just need to do it. We cannot afford to go into the holiday season with an all-time high of daily COVID-19 cases. As the weather turns colder and more and more people are close to one another indoors, the threat of COVID increases, just as it did when it was hot and we were indoors. We cannot start that season at an all-time high or we will have a very dark winter and a difficult spring. If we all move from selfishness in doing the few things that doctors tell us are not safe to community protection, we can stem the tide of COVID. Together, we’ll flatten the curve, safe lives, and strengthen our economy and schools.”  said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]