Dallas County added another 1,179 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday along with seven more deaths attributed to the virus.
Of the cases reported Tuesday, the county said 1096 were confirmed cases and 83 were probable (antigen test) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the county from March to 127,786 and the number of probable (antigen test) cases to 12,191. Over the last seven days, Dallas County officials have confirmed 7,534 confirmed and probable cases of the virus.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins cautioned the most labs that did not report cases or perform COVID-19 testing over the holiday are back online and that the numbers published Wednesday will be more representative o f a typical day of testing.
The seven latest victims involved patients from their 60s to their 80s from Dallas, Grand Prairie, Irving and DeSoto, all of whom had been hospitalized and all had underlying health conditions.
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County officials said Tuesday there have been 1,218 confirmed deaths in the county attributed to the virus and another 36 probable deaths. In the summer, Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang said COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death in the county behind diseases of the heart and cancers.
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The county said that the provisional 7-day average for new confirmed and probable cases by date of a test collection for CDC week 46 has increased to 1,405, which is a rate of 53.3 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. During the same week, a provisional total of 1,282 confirmed and probable cases were diagnosed in school children between the ages of 5 and 17 -- a three-fold increase from five weeks earlier.
The county also reported that over the last 30 days there have been 798 COVID-19 cases reported from 95 separate long-term care facilities. Of the cases reported, 309 were among staff members.
DCHHS said this is the highest number of long-term care facilities with active outbreaks reported in Dallas County since the beginning of the pandemic. Of these cases, 27 have died, including two deaths of staff members.
Officials said 20 active clusters of cases in congregate-living facilities (homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) have been reported in the past 30 days associated with 168 cases, including one facility this past week with 87 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
