Dallas County is reporting another 254 new COVID-19 cases Monday and, for the first time in more than a week, no new deaths associated with the virus.
After a drop in daily cases in late May, the number of new cases surged well above 200 again every day this month and, twice last week, set records for the number of new cases set in the county.
Monday through Friday last week the county reported 1,307 new cases of the virus for an average of 261 per day. Over the weekend another 552 cases were recorded, an average of 276 per day.
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"We’re hopeful that the increase that we saw over the last few days was due to population testing in nursing homes and other factors and not the beginning of a spike in cases," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "Doctors will be watching this closely for the next few days to try to determine that. The indicators to watch are hospitalizations, ICU admissions for COVID-19, ER visits for COVID-19 and deaths. These numbers are remaining flat."
There are now 12,347 confirmed cases in Dallas County with 264 deaths. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, an estimated 7,467 people in the county have recovered from the virus leaving an estimated 4,600 active cases in the county.
Jenkins added that two new test sites open Monday through Saturday at Red Bird Malland Inspired Vision Compassion Center from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for walk-up testing. There is still free drive-thru testing at the American Airlines Center and Ellis Davis Field House.
"In order to move to a less stringent activities guideline, local doctors and the CDC want to see a 14-day decline in those numbers. Thus far we’ve seen no decline," Jenkins said.
DCHHS said local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators in determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response.
Suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU Admissions, and ER visits continue to remain flat in Dallas County according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.
DCHHS said last week they were continuing to see a sustained daily census of about 300 COVID-19 patients in Dallas County hospitals over the past two weeks. Additionally, the reported seeing a sustained number of individuals presenting to Dallas County hospital emergency rooms with suspected COVID-19 symptoms.
DCHHS said Thursday of cases requiring hospitalization who reported employment, over 80% have been critical infrastructure workers, with a broad range of affected occupational sectors, including healthcare, transportation, food and agriculture, public works, finance, communications, clergy, first responders and other essential functions.
Of cases requiring hospitalization, two-thirds 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.
