Dallas County Health and Human Services reported two deaths and 1,269 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, Nov 6.  The county has reported 1,127 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 100,628.

The county is also reporting a total of 8,003 probable cases and 18 probable deaths.

The additional two deaths reported today are:

A woman in her 50’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.

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.

The city of Sachse reported cases 453 through 468. Residents of Dallas County include a 24, two 25,  26, 30, 51 and  90 year-old men and a 32, 34, 47, 50 and 64 year-old women. Collin County residents include a 39-year-old man and a 15, 20 and 48 year-old women.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 43 has increased to 733 — the highest daily average of new cases since July. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 has increased to 15.4% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 43 (week ending 10/24/20). A provisional total of 693 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 43 – over twice the numbers of children diagnosed in this age group 3 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 478 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Thursday, November 5. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 457 for the same time period, which represents around 18 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. Due to a reporting omission, we believe these numbers are actually higher than reflected. Forecasting from UTSW still shows potential for substant ial growth in hospitalizations.

“Today we’ve reached the grim milestone of 100,000 Dallas County residents who have been sickened with COVID-19. Our daily numbers continue to increase with today’s total of 1,269 being the highest daily total we’ve seen since our peaks in July that could not be attributed to a backlog or data release like we saw earlier this week when 80% of our probable cases on the day that we reported 1500 cases were attributable to antigen tests that had been done over the last 15 days. Today’s numbers are from recent cases. Additionally, we have two deaths to report today, a person in their 50’s and a person in their 60’s.

We are seeing too many people relax their resolve due to COVID fatigue and now is not the time to stop wearing masks or being around more people when we are in a dangerous fall wave.  We must get these numbers under control as Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two holidays when people are around more people and the cold winter months bring us indoors where spread is easier. We know what to do, we just need to do it. Wear your mask, avoid crowds, and renew your focus on moving from our understandable selfish desires to resume our pre-COVID activities to sacrifice for the community health and economy for a little while longer. This won’t last forever but unfortunately it will last a little while longer and it’s up to all of us to do our part to flatten the curve,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]