Dallas County Health and Human Services reported four deaths and 1,867 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 for Jan 11.  The county reported 1,777 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 194,380.

The county is also reporting a total of 24,706 probable COVID cases.

The additional deaths reported include:

A man in his 50’s who was a resident of the City of Richardson. He had been hospitalized 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 Cedar Hill. 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 Richardson. 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 DeSoto. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse has reported 1,414 COVID-19 cases through today, including 45 new cases for both Collin and Dallas County residents of the city. New cases in the Dallas County portion of Sachse include an 8, 20, 26, 27, 32, 33, 36, 41, 51, 51, 55, 56, 61, 66, and a 78-year-old female and a 20, 20, 22, 24, 26, 26, 30, 32, 35, 40, 49, 65 and 72-year-old male. New cases in the Collin County part of Sachse include a 38, 39, 42, 45, 46, 47, 52 and 55-year-old female and a 20, 27, 37, 44, 47, 49, 54, 58 and 62-year-old male.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 53 was to 2,104, which is a rate of 79.8 daily new cases per 100,000 residents, the highest case rate during this pandemic.  The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 31.0% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 53 (week ending 1/2/21). Since the beginning of the pandemic, over 3,864 healthcare workers and first responders have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Dallas County.

Over the past 30 days, there have been 5,309 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from 677 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County, including 454 staff members.

There are currently 109 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 3,286 residents and 1,871 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 378 have died. About 22% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities. Forty-two 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 114 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

“We have 1,867 new cases of COVID to report and four deaths. I’m on site at our Fair Park mass vaccination center and things are running smoothly this afternoon. Our hope is to vaccinate thousands of people this and every week to protect our most vulnerable citizens against the threat of COVID. While I’m pleased that vaccinations are accelerating, we are at an all-time high for hospitalizations and COVID infections. It’s important to remember that with these sort of new infection and hospitalization numbers, things that you felt were safe several weeks ago are much less safe today. That is why doctors ask that you do your part to help them have capacity so they can help anyone who needs any sort of help at our hospitals. Please follow doctors’ advice to wear your mask, wash your hands, avoid crowds by finding ways to do shopping online or through curbside pickup, avoid unnecessary exposures, and forgo get-to-gethers with people outside your home during this time of high spread. 

January and February will likely be our toughest months for COVID unless the new strain causes a huge surge or we let our guard down, and through our actions, create a surge. Otherwise, by March, there will be some protection as our healthcare heroes and most vulnerable Texans will have had the opportunity to get the vaccine.  Which each successive month, we should get stronger in our battle against COVID but it depends on the smart decisions of all of us, doing all that we can with small sacrifices and smart decisions to be patriotic in this national effort to defeat COVID,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]