Health officials in Dallas County reported one coronavirus-related death Saturday and 398 additional cases of COVID-19.
Of the 398 cases, 195 of them are from the Texas Department of State Health Services reporting backlog.
The death reported Saturday was of a Lancaster man in his 80s who did not have any underlying health conditions, according DCHHS.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins issued a dire warning about large, in-person gatherings over Labor Day weekend, saying that as summer comes to an end and temperatures cool, it might be more difficult to get COVID-19 case numbers under control.
"This weekend is a critical time for us. The numbers have been lowering, but three-day weekends have historically led to more infections as people get around family and friends attending functions where there is more exposure than in a normal weekend," Jenkins said. "We cannot let that happen this weekend. We cannot see a big bump in cases like we saw 10 days after Easter/Passover and 10 days after Memorial Day. Should we see an increase in cases from this weekend, it could be the spring before we can get those numbers back down."
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
The county has now accumulated 73,453 cases of the virus since testing began in March. With an estimated 62,701 recoveries being reported by the state through Saturday, there are also an estimated 9,168 active cases in Dallas County.
There have been 944 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.
