Dallas County Health and Human Services reported five deaths and 2,809 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 for Jan 16.  The county reported 1,858 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 206,329.

The county is also reporting a total of 26,919 probable COVID cases.

The additional deaths reported include:

A man in his 50’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. 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 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 Garland. 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 Dallas. He had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 80’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.

The city of Sachse has reported 1,559 COVID-19 cases through Friday. No updates were released today.

The first case of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 has been identified in a resident of Dallas County, who did not have recent travel outside of the US. The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 1 was 2,545, which is a rate of 96.6 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 remains high, with 31.5% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 1 (week ending 1/9/21).

Over the past 30 days, there have been 7,310 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from 674 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County, with 1,842 of these cases reported during the last week of December.

There are currently 111 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. This year, a total of 3,453 residents and 1,982 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 717 have been hospitalized and 386 have died. About 22% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities. Thirty-six 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 93 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. New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed summary reports updated Tuesday and Friday evenings are available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/daily-updates.php

Due to the observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, Dallas County will not be releasing COVID-19 data on Monday, January 18. Reporting will resume Tuesday, January 19. Tuesday’s reporting will include data from Sunday (1/17), and Wednesday’s reporting will include data from Monday (1/18) and Tuesday (1/19).

Local health experts are using 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 1,145 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Friday, January 15. The number of emergency room visits for COVID 19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 524 for the same time-period, which represents around 21 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. This is another record high for hospitalizations. We are concerned we have not yet seen the full impact of the holiday surge. UTSW modeling predicts hospitalization could reach 1,076 – 1,700 by January 26, with cases as high as 3,300/day by the same date. Their model also indicates an increase in ICU utilization, which is concerning as capacity is extremely limited at current demand.

“Today we report 2,809 new COVID cases and an additional five deaths. Our daily average of new COVID cases for the first week of January, ending January 9, has reached an all-time high of 2,545 and the positivity rate now sits at 31.5%. These numbers, along with near record high numbers of COVID hospitalizations, a low number of adult ICU beds available, and the announcement earlier today of the first reported case with the B.1.1.7 variant in Dallas County, are all reasons for our public health experts to be concerned about this virus in our community and region over the next several weeks. We must do what we can now to slow and stop the spread by wearing our masks around anyone outside of our household, washing our hands frequently, and avoiding crowds,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]