Dallas County reports 656 coronavirus cases, 4 deaths; Tarrant County adds 742 cases, 6 deaths

Updated at 5:35 p.m.: Revised to include statewide numbers.

Dallas County reported 656 more coronavirus cases Thursday, all of which the county considers new. Four new COVID-19 deaths were also reported.

Labs either report coronavirus cases directly to the county health department or to the state health department, which then relays the information to individual counties. Of the confirmed cases reported Thursday, Dallas County health officials said 274 came from the state’s reporting system. The rest were reported directly to the county health department.

The latest victims were two Dallas men in their 80s, a Cedar Hill man in his 40s and a Grand Prairie man in his 50s. All had underlying high-risk health conditions.

“Our number of new COVID-19 cases continues its trend upward and hospitals and medical modelers are telling us that if we don’t change our behavior, we will have numbers exceeding 1,000 cases per day going into Thanksgiving,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.

Of the new cases reported Thursday, 565 are confirmed cases and 91 are probable cases. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 95,402 and probable cases to 5,649. The county has recorded 1,108 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 14 probable deaths.

A spokeswoman recently said the county was counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases, though a few antibody and “household” results had been included previously.

While other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, saying it is not a measurement used by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive-care admissions and emergency room visits as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. In the 24-hour period that ended Wednesday, 453 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 440 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Oct. 10-17, was 588 — the highest number since July.

Dallas County doesn’t provide a positivity rate for all COVID-19 tests conducted in the area; county health officials have said they don’t have an accurate count of how many tests are conducted each day. But as of the county’s most recent reporting period, 14.2% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s an increase from the previous reporting period, when 11.3% such patients tested positive.

Statewide data

Across the state, 6,430 more cases and 119 COVID-19 deaths were reported Thursday. Texas has now reported 886,820 confirmed cases and 17,819 fatalities.

There are 5,587 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 1,516 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 9.8% as of Wednesday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.

The state also provides a positivity rate based on when lab results were reported to the state; that rate stood at 10.1% as of Wednesday.

Officials previously calculated Texas' coronavirus positivity rate by dividing the most recent seven days of new positive test results by the most recent seven days of total new test results. By that measure, the positivity rate is now 8.6%, according to its dashboard.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said that positivity rate data based on lab results and new cases will likely be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 742 coronavirus cases and six new deaths Thursday.

The latest victims were four Fort Worth women — one in her 40s, two in their 60s and one in her 90s — a Mansfield man in his 90s and a North Richland Hills woman in her 50s. All had underlying health conditions.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 66,110, including 59,672 confirmed cases, 6438 probable cases and 52,544 recoveries. The death toll stands at 734.

According to the county dashboard, 528 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

Collin County added 232 coronavirus cases Thursday, bringing its total to 18,247. The county did not report any new deaths, leaving its toll at 180.

The county has 1,124 active cases of the virus — including 192 people who are hospitalized, according to the county dashboard.

Collin County, which receives its data from the Department of State Health Services since turning over case management in June, has a note on its dashboard warning residents that it has low confidence in the numbers the state is providing.

Denton County

Denton County reported 126 coronavirus cases — of which 102 are active — and three new deaths Thursday.

The latest deaths included two residents of Saddle Brook Memory Care in Frisco, women in their 70s and 80s. The third was a Denton man in his 50s.

A spokesman for the owner of the Saddle Brook said Thursday night that there were two more deaths. But no details were available. The deaths will likely be officially announced by the county in the coming days.

That brings the total number of deaths announced this week at Saddle Brook to 10.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 16,718, including 2,931 that are active and 13,657 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 130.

The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 14,769, while antigen cases stand at 1,949.

There are 79 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, according to the county’s data.

Other counties

The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

The latest numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 1,962 cases, 33 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 3,594 cases, 57 deaths.
• Ellis County: 4,999 cases, 79 deaths.
• Johnson County: 3,754 cases, 65 deaths.