The Dallas County Health Department is reporting five new confirmed COVID-19 deaths Thursday along with 160 new confirmed cases of the virus.
DCHHS reported 219 cases Thursday, including 59 from the Texas Department of State Health Services backlog. The backlogged cases included 18 from June, 36 from July and five from earlier this month.
The county reported five new deaths Thursday, including:
- A man in his 50s 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 60s 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 60s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Cedar Hill. He had been hospitalized.
- A man in his 70s who was a resident of the City of Garland. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high-risk health conditions.
- A man in his 70s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Dallas. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high-risk health conditions.
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"Today's new COVID-19 positive numbers continue a trend of lower cases," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "If we keep our resolve for focusing on the community good, to keep not only ourselves but our community healthy, less people will get sick, more businesses will stay open so our neighbors will keep their jobs, and our kids can get back to school sooner rather than later."
Jenkins urged people to continue wearing a mask, maintaining six-foot distancing, washing hands frequently, and avoiding unnecessary trips and said it was helping curb the spread of the virus.
The additional cases decreased the county's 7-day average from 488 cases per day to 475 cases per day; the 14-day average went down from 1007 cases per day to 977 cases per day. Both averages continue to be impacted by the state backlog, particularly the 14-day average that is still impacted by the more than 7,000 cases added Aug. 16-17.
Both Jenkins and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said last week that counties should expect to have several more days of "discovered, backlogged cases" before the reporting normalizes. Of the backlogged cases, Jenkins said the patients did receive the results of their COVID-19 test, but that information was lost in the state's system and no tracing was done.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said the state and private labs have made changes to fix lags in reporting and that he has more confidence than ever that the accounting of the numbers being reported by the state are accurate.
The county has now accumulated 70,100 cases of the virus since testing began in March. With an estimated 51,723 recoveries being reported by the state through Tuesday, there are also an estimated 17,482 active cases in Dallas County. There have been 890 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 5.5 deaths per day.
