Dallas County added another 702 new cases of COVID-19 Monday along with five more deaths attributed to the virus.
Of the cases reported Monday, the county said 684 were confirmed cases and 18 were probable (antigen test) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the county from March to 126,690 and the number of probable (antigen test) cases to 12,108. Over the last seven days, Dallas County officials have confirmed 8,071 confirmed and probable cases of the virus.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins cautioned the lower number of cases being reported Monday may be due to "several reporting entities that have not submitted test results to Dallas County Health and Human Services since Wednesday. We expect more accurate numbers tomorrow and Wednesday."
The five latest victims involved patients from their 60s to their 80s, all of whom had been hospitalized and all but two had underlying health conditions.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
County officials said Monday there have been 1,212 confirmed deaths in the county attributed to the virus and another 34 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.
COVID-19 Latest
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
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 month there have been 818 COVID-19 cases reported from 90 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, 48 have been hospitalized and 29 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 167 cases, including one facility this past week with 81 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
