Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 20 deaths and 1,849 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, Dec 11.  The county reported 1,315 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 141,303. Yesterday, Dallas County officials indicated that of all COVID-19 hospitalizations, one-third were in ICU and one-fifth were on ventilators.

The county is also reporting a total of 14, 922 probable cases and 52 probable deaths.

The additional deaths today include:

A man in his 40’s who was a resident of the City of Cedar Hill. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 40’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 50’s who was a resident of the City of Mesquite. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 50’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 50’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 50’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. She expired in an area hospital ED and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He 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 60’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 60’s who was a resident of the City of DeSoto. He 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 the City of Mesquite. He expired in an area hospital ED and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 70’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He 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 the City of Dallas. He expired in an area hospital ED and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 80’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. She had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 80’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He 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 Farmers Branch. He 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 DeSoto. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 90’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions

A woman in her 90’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. She had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 90’s who was a resident of the City of Mesquite. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse has reported 857 COVID-19 cases through yesterday, Dec. 10 for both Collin and Dallas County residents of the city. Dallas County cases include a 9, 20, 24, 25, 26, 28, 35, 60 and 62-year-old female and a 16, 17, 22, 24, 41, 45, 53, 65 and 66-year-old male. Collin County cases include a 20, 25, 27 and 61-year-old female and a 18, 31, 38, 41, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50, 52 and 66-year-old male.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 48 has increased to 1,117, which is a rate of 42.4 daily new cases per 100,000 residents—the highest case rate in Dallas County since the beginning of the pandemic. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 has increased, with 22.3% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 48 (week ending 11/28/20).

Over the past 30 days there have been 4,520 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from over 735 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County, including 681 staff members. Of these cases, 534 have been associated with extracurricular activities, including athletics.

There are currently 101 active long-term care facility outbreaks. This is the highest number of long-term care facilities with active outbreaks reported in Dallas County since the beginning of the pandemic. Over the past 30 days, a total of 857 COVID-19 cases have been reported from these facilities, including 328 staff members. Of these cases 38 have been hospitalized, and 30 have died, including 2 deaths of staff members. Twenty-four outbreaks of COVID-19 in congregate-living facilities (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) have been reported in the past 30 days associated with 155 cases, including 5 hospitalizations and 2 deaths. One facility has reported 87 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

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 23% have been associated with long-term care facilities. New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate.

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 791 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Thursday, December 10. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 501 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.

On December 3, Trauma Service Area E (TSA E), which includes Dallas County and the greater Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, reached seven consecutive days where the percentage of COVID-19 confirmed patients in regional hospitals, as a percentage of available hospital beds, exceeded 15 percent. According to Governor Abbott’s Executive Order GA-32 (GA-32), this makes TSA E an area with high hospitalizations and certain occupancy reductions are automatically triggered by reaching this threshold.

“Today we report 1,849 additional new COVID positive cases and 20 deaths. This is already our most deadly week of COVID and the high numbers we have experienced today and over the last several weeks inform medical modelers as to how many serious hospitalizations, ventilator patients, and ultimately deaths we are likely to see next month. The decisions that we make to wear our mask, avoid crowds, and forgo get togethers will largely determine what our new COVID positive numbers will look like a week to two weeks from now and how many hospitalizations, ICU patients and deaths we have in the weeks that follow. 

Any COVID outbreak will eventually lead to a person who is ill-equipped to handle the virus and pays with a grave illness or even their life. That may happen in the immediate family of one of the people in the first level of the outbreak or it may happen three or four degrees of separation later where it is unknown to those who were in the chain of transmission. This is why we talk about the need for patriotism and small community sacrifices now. It’s not just about protecting the people that we can see, it’s about protecting the people who will get the virus from our outbreak and pay a heavy toll. In order to keep our community and America strong until we can defeat this virus with vaccinations, we must wear our mask. Think of the mask as a vaccination that you wear and we must use our smart decisions and patriotism as a vaccination of good judgment that will protect America in this critical time,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]