Dallas County Health and Human Services reported three deaths and 444 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, today, Oct 9.  The county has reported 1,047 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 85,633.

The total new cases today include 127 from Texas Department of State Health Services, including cases from April (1), September (3) and October (123).

The three deaths being reported in Dallas County are:

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 70’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 man in his 70’s who was a resident of the city of Dallas. He had been hospitalized and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.

The provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 39 was 348, an increase from the previous daily average of 316 for CDC week 38. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 10.7% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 39.

A provisional total of 252 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 39 (week ending 9/26/2020), an increase from the previous week for this age group. The percentage of cases occurring in young adults aged 18 to 22 years has increased to 12% for the month of September.

Of the cases requiring hospitalization to date, more than two-thirds (66%) have been under 65 years of age, and over half reported having a chronic health condition. 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 in determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. There were 302 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Thursday, October 8. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 445 for the 24-hour period ending on Wednesday, October 7, which represents around 16 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

“Today we have 444 new COVID-19 positive cases from the month of October, three from the month of September, one from April, and 29 probable cases for a total of 448 new cases. Additionally, we have three deaths, including a person in their 40’s, and two people in their 70’s. With Texas/OU weekend starting today, it’s very important that we resist the urge celebrate in ways the doctors recommend against. Please do not go to large gatherings or any gathering where people are not wearing their mask one hundred percent of the time indoors. We want to reverse the trend that we’re now seeing in our numbers going up and get to a place where less people get sick, more businesses can thrive and our children are having safe in-person experiences at school,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]