The Dallas County Health Department is reporting two more deaths and 249 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.
Of the 249 cases reported Wednesday, Dallas County Health said 247 came from the Texas DSHS backlog with two coming from August and the rest coming from this month.
Watch NBC 5 free wherever you are
WATCH HEREThe two new deaths reported by the county include:
- A woman in her 30s 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 woman in her 60s who was a resident of the City of Duncanville. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high-risk health conditions.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning with NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP COVID-19 TRACKING AND TESTING
The county has now accumulated 82,410 cases of the virus since testing began in March. There have been 1,024 confirmed deaths attributed in the county to the virus, which, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang, is now the third leading cause of death in the county behind diseases of the heart and cancers. Since March 20, the date of the first reported COVID-19 related death in Dallas County, the county has averaged 5.3 deaths per day.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a statement Wednesday that the number of cases in the county is again on the rise and that the time is now for people to take precautions to curb the spread of the virus.
"Our numbers in Dallas County are now moving higher and that makes it very important that we all exercise good decision making. This includes wearing our mask 100% of the time and maintaining six-foot distancing, washing our hands regularly, avoiding unnecessary exposures, and avoiding indoor activities where the mask cannot be worn 100% of the time," said Jenkins.
"The fall can lead to a good situation with the weather cooling and more opportunities to space out outdoors. However, over the last two weeks, increased capacities at retail establishments and a letting down of the guard at functions at home, along with some outbreaks at schools (although those numbers have been manageable), and a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in people 18-22, both in college and not in college, has led to the stop of our improvement," Jenkins said. "These increases now threaten to push us back into the sort of numbers that we saw in August if we don’t all work together to make smart decisions."
Dallas County Health officials said last week the provisional 7-day average daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 38 was 307, an increase from the previous daily average of 261 for CDC week 37. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 has also increased and remains high with 11.9% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 38.
A provisional total of 237 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 38 (week ending 9/19/2020), an increase from the previous week for this age group. The percentage of cases occurring in young adults aged 18 to 22 years has increased to 13% for the month of September.
