The Dallas County Health Department is reporting four more COVID-19 deaths Wednesday along with 508 new cases of the virus and another drop in the 7-day average of new cases.
The four latest victims of the pandemic include:
- A Dallas man in his 40s who did not have underlying health conditions and had been hospitalized.
- A Dallas man in his 40s who had underlying high-risk health conditions and who had been critically ill in a hospital ICU.
- A Dallas woman in her 60s who had underlying high-risk health conditions and who had been critically ill in a hospital ICU.
- An Irving man in his 90s who was a resident of a long-term care facility and who had underlying high-risk health conditions and who had been critically ill in a hospital ICU.
"Today's four deaths include an otherwise healthy man in his 40s who succumbed to COVID-19. This is a somber reminder that although COVID-19 statistically has a worse course on high-risk individuals, it can cause serious damage and even death to otherwise healthy individuals," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who continued to urge people to wear face coverings and physically distance themselves from others as much as possible.
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The 508 new cases reported Wednesday are the second-lowest number of new cases reported in more than a week. The county's 7-day average of new cases dropped for the fifth straight day to 558 cases per day; the 14-day average, which had declined for 10 days straight, increased from 650 cases per day on Tuesday to 657 on Wednesday.
Jenkins said through Tuesday night there were still 682 people in the county in acute care being treated for the virus and at over the same 24-hour period there were 557 ER visits in the county for people reporting COVID-19 symptoms.
Dallas County reported Wednesday that there have been 2,340 children under the age of 18 confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 since July 1. During that time, 61 of those kids have been hospitalized as a result.
The county has now accumulated 52,639 cases of the virus since testing began in March. There have been 726 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 5.2 deaths per day.
Of cases requiring hospitalization, two-thirds of all COVID-19 patients have been under 65 years of age, and about half do not have high-risk chronic health conditions. Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
The county has been reporting for several weeks now that more than a third of the deaths related to COVID-19 have been among residents of long-term care facilities.
