Dallas County added another 2,122 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday along with three more deaths attributed to the virus.
Of the cases reported Thursday, the county said 1,637 were confirmed cases and 485 were probable (antigen test) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the county from March to 130,830 and the number of probable (antigen test) cases to 12,909. Over the last seven days, Dallas County officials have confirmed 9,928 confirmed and probable cases of the virus.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said this is the second-highest number of new COVID-19 cases seen thus far and that he expects healthcare workers and those in nursing homes will begin receiving the vaccine later this month. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Wednesday that the CDC's initial allotment of more than 1.4 million doses of vaccine should arrive in Texas around Dec. 14.
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The three latest victims involved a man in his 60s and two men in their 70s. All three men were from Dallas and all three had been critically ill in the ICU with underlying health conditions.
County officials said Thursday there have been 1,224 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 47 was 1,347, a slight drop from week 46 and is a rate of 51.1 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. During the same week, a provisional total of 1,157 confirmed and probable cases were diagnosed in school children between the ages of 5 and 17 -- another slight drop from the week before.
