Dallas County Health and Human Services reported five deaths and 209 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on May 5. The county has reported 3,918 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 258,130.

The county is also reporting a total of 41,660 probable COVID cases.

Dallas County Health and Human Services is providing initial vaccinations to those most at risk of exposure to COVID-19. Since starting vaccinations, 445,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered at the Fair Park mega-vaccine clinic, which started operations on Monday, January 11.

The additional deaths reported include:

A man in his 60’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 60’s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Irving. She expired in the facility and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 80’s who was a resident of the City of Irving. 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 had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 90’s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Dallas. She expired in a facility and had underlying high risk health conditions.

Two additional cases of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variants and one SARS-CoV-2 B.1.526 variant have been newly confirmed in a resident of Dallas County. To date, a total of 61 cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7; six B.1.429 variants; two B.1.526 variants; one P.1 variant; and one P.2 variant have been identified in residents of Dallas County. Five have been hospitalized with 3 requiring intensive care unit admission, and one has died. Seven had history of recent domestic travel outside of Texas.

One case of B.1.1.7 is a likely instance of reinfection with COVID-19, occurring over 6 months after an initial PCR-confirmed infection. The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 16 was 207, which is a rate of 7.9 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals in week 16 (week ending 4/24/21), 9.5% of respiratory specimens tested positive SARS-CoV-2.

During the past 30 days, there were 1,064 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from 390 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County.

There are currently 28 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 4,361 residents and 2,455 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,081 have been hospitalized and 769 have died. About 20% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities. Eleven 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. A cumulative total of 593 residents and 220 staff members in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

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.

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 187 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on May 4. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 404 for the same time-period, which represents around 14 percent of all emergency department visits in the county.

Updated UTSW forecasting reflects an increase within their model with hospitalizations between 160-230 and daily case counts of 260 by May 17th.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]