Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 14 deaths and a record 3,549 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 for Jan 12.  The county reported 1,791 total deaths to date. The total confirmed cases are 197,359.

The county is also reporting a total of 25,276 probable COVID cases.

The additional deaths reported include:

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 50’s who was a resident of the City of Desoto. He had been hospitalized and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A man in his 50’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 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.

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.

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.

A woman in her 60’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. She had been critically ill in area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 60’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 Mesquite. He 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 Highland Park. 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 critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

A woman in her 70’s who was a resident of the City of Highland Park. 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 Dallas. 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 critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.

The city of Sachse has reported 1,465 COVID-19 cases through today. Total new cases of 51 for the city of Sachse include, in Dallas County, three females without specified ages, a 6, 8, 14, 14, 16, 18, 33, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48, 48, 49, 51, 62 and 87-year-old female, as well as two males without specified ages and a 12, 13, 36, 37, 40, 41, 46, 53, 58, 60 and 61-year-old male. Collin County residents include a 17, 24, 37, 45, 53, 55, 66 and 92-year-old female and a male without a specified age and a 14, 22, 29, 34, 37, 45, 50, 52 and 68-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

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 1,226 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Monday, January 11. The number of emergency room visits for COVID 19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 462 for the same time-period, which represents around 25 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 1,150 – 1,870 by January 19, with cases as high as 3,500/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 3,549 additional new COVID cases. This is over 350 cases higher than we have ever reported in a single day. Additionally, there are 14 deaths to report. We are in our toughest time for COVID spread. Activities that seemed safe to you weeks ago are much less safe now. Much focus is on vaccine now, as it should be, but the job of ensuring orderly and rapid vaccination falls on a few of us in emergency response and healthcare. The job of keeping safe and keeping the spread of COVID down falls on all of you. 

Please do your part to help our healthcare heroes help you. Wear your mask, wash your hands, and think of ways to avoid other people outside of your family and those you must be around at your job. You can do this by exercising outside, rather than indoors at a gym or other setting, staying out of restaurants and bars for now and supporting them through pickup or delivery, doing your shopping online, for curbside pick-up or delivery, and any other ways to keep you and your family, and by extension our community and our country stronger, until a vaccine can have its effect,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]