Dallas County Health and Human Services reported  767 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, Nov 13.  The county reported 1,140 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 106,287.

The county is also reporting a total of 9,596 probable cases and 20 probable deaths to date. Today’s probable death is a woman in her 40’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. She had been critically ill in a area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 44 has increased to 779 – a rate of 30.0 new cases daily per 100,000 residents. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 has increased to 14.8% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 43 (week ending 10/31/20). A provisional total of 608 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 44 – almost twice the numbers of children diagnosed in this age group 4 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 596 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Thursday, November 12. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 567 for the same time period, 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.

“Today we added 767 new cases and one new death to our COVID totals. Attached is an updated slide showing that our compliance as a community has dropped in the latest medical model from 63% to 56%.  This raises our R-naught score or replication factor from 1.09% to 1.25%. This is a dramatic increase in the spread and replication of COVID.

It calls for swift action on all of our part. I’m asking businesses to institute telecommuting to the fullest extent possible, and in doing so, talk to your employees about the importance to public health, the company, and the economy of avoiding crowds, forgoing the Black Friday shopping throngs, celebrating Thanksgiving with the people that you live with and not going to bars and indoor dining experiences or having get-togethers in friend’s homes.

It won’t always be like this but it will be like this for a little while longer. According to the DFW Hospital Council we are already at 94% of our peak hospital census from July and staring down the barrel of a medical model that indicates without drastic change we’ll be above 2000 cases per day on average before Thanksgiving. Now is the time to turn it around. The decisions you make today will determine the numbers in the coming days. Everyone, we’ve done it before and we can do it again. North Texas is up to the challenge but we’ve got to wear the mask and avoid the crowds and renew our unselfish commitment to each other and to public health,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]