The Dallas County Health Department is reporting nine new confirmed COVID-19 deaths Wednesday along with 154 new confirmed cases of the virus.
DCHHS reported 578 cases Wednesday, the vast majority of which were from the Texas Department of State Health Services backlog. In all, the county said 154 cases were new and that 424 were from the backlog including six in March, 116 in April and 271 in May and 31 in June.
The county reported nine new deaths Wednesday, including:
- A man in his 40s who was a resident of the City of Wilmer. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high-risk health conditions.
- A man in his 40s 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 woman in her 50s who was a resident of the City of Irving. She 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 Richardson. He 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 Farmers Branch. She was found deceased at home and had underlying high-risk health conditions.
- A woman in her 60s who was a resident of the City of Lancaster. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high-risk health conditions.
- A woman in her 70s who was a resident of a long-term care facility in the City of Lancaster. She had been hospitalized and had underlying high-risk health conditions.
- A woman in her 80s 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.
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"Today we continue the trend of a low number of new COVID-19 positive cases with 154 cases in the month of August," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "The total number is 578 cases, but 424 of those are cases from earlier months that were lost in the state's electronic laboratory reporting system. Unfortunately, it is possible that the state is also losing cases that were done recently and not reporting those cases timely, but we can look at hospitalizations and other factors, not relying on the state's ELR system, and see that the trends are moving in a positive direction."
The additional cases increased the county's 7-day average from 463 cases per day to 488 cases per day; the 14-day average went up from 982 cases per day to 1006 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 69,881 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 17,268 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.
