Dallas County Adds 767 New COVID-19 Cases Friday, 1 Death

Dallas County is adding another 767 COVID-19 cases Friday along with another death as hospitalizations in North Texas climb back toward the peak numbers reached in July.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said DFW Hospital Council statistics show the area has reached 94% of the peak hospital census reached in July and that we're "staring down the barrel of a medical model that indicates without drastic change we'll be above 2,000 cases per day on average before Thanksgiving."

"Now is the time to turn it around. The decisions you make today will determine the numbers in the coming days," Jenkins said.

Of the cases reported Friday, the county said 499 were confirmed cases and 268 were probable (antigen test) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the county from March to 106,287 and the number of probable (antigen test) cases to 9,596. None of the new cases were reported to be part of a backlog and, rather, indicate all currently active cases in the county.

The latest victim of the virus is a woman in her 40s from Dallas who had been hospitalized in the ICU for the disease and did have underlying high-risk health conditions.

County officials said Thursday there have been 1,141 confirmed deaths in the county attributed to the virus and another 19 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.

The county added that the provisional 7-day average for new confirmed and probable cases by date of a test collection for CDC week 44 has increased from a high of 740 to 779, or 30 cases per 100,000 residents. During the same week, a provisional total of 577 confirmed and probable cases diagnosed in school children between the ages of 5 and 17 increased to 608 cases -- almost a two-fold increase over a month before.