Dallas County reports 906 new coronavirus cases, 8 more deaths; Tarrant County adds 1,503 cases and 7 deaths

Updated at 4:45 p.m.: Revised to include Collin County and statewide data.

Dallas County reported 906 new coronavirus cases Friday, as well as eight additional deaths from COVID-19.

Seven of the latest victims were Dallas residents: a man and a woman in their 60s, two men and a woman in their 70s, and two women in their 80s. The eighth was a Mesquite woman in her 30s. All eight had underlying high-risk health conditions, officials said.

County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement that residents need to make an effort to avoid spreading the virus until vaccines are widely available.

“We know that masks work and that when we avoid crowds, we lessen the chance for COVID spreading, not just to us and to our families, but to others,” he said. “Remember that if there’s an increase in COVID in your family or your company, that will eventually trickle to a population and a person who is ill-equipped to fight the virus.”

Of the new cases reported Friday, 649 are confirmed and 257 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 131,479 and probable cases to 13,166. The county has recorded 1,230 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 38 probable deaths.

The county has said it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and “household” results were 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, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use that metric.

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 Thursday, 802 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 509 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

Statewide data

Across the state, 13,581 more cases and 255 COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday. Texas has now reported 1,228,812 confirmed cases and 22,255 fatalities.

There are 9,015 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,464 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Hospitalizations in North Texas for COVID-19, at 15.2%, remained above the threshold set by Gov. Greg Abbott to roll back business capacities to 50%. The rollback went into effect Thursday, the seventh consecutive day with hospitalizations above 15%, and it affects restaurants, retail stores, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, gyms and exercise facilities and classes, museums and libraries.

For the rollback to end, the region would need seven days in a row with hospitalizations of less than 15%.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 14.7% as of Thursday. 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 13.8% as of Thursday.

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 11.8%, according to the state 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 1,503 coronavirus cases and seven new deaths Friday.

The latest victims were four Arlington men, two in their 60s and two in their 80s; two Fort Worth men, in their 70s and 80s; and a White Settlement man in his 50s. Six of the seven had underlying health conditions, officials said without specifying which man did not.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 107,178, including 94,862 confirmed cases, 12,316 probable cases and 75,014 recoveries. The death toll stands at 871.

According to Friday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 857 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 257 coronavirus cases to Collin County’s total Friday, bringing the tally to 28,105. Six new COVID-19 fatalities also were reported, bringing the county’s death toll to 272.

No details about the latest victims were available.

According to state estimates, the county has 2,904 active cases of the virus.

The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 300.

Denton County

Denton County reported a record 553 coronavirus cases — of which 378 are active — and six new deaths Friday.

There were only six ICU beds available in the county Friday, according to Dr. Matt Richardson, the county’s health director.

“We are at a critical point with COVID-19 in our county,” County Judge Andy Eads said in a written statement. “We must honor the lives of those around us by wearing masks when around anyone we do not live with.”

The latest victims were two men in their 70s who lived at Longmeadow Healthcare Center in Justin; two men, one in his 60s and one over 80, who lived at Cedar Ridge Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Pilot Point; a man older than 80 who lived at Autumn Leaves of Carrollton; and a Lewisville man older than 80.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 25,645, including 6,698 that are active and 18,789 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 158.

The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 21,576, while antigen cases stand at 4,069.

There are 149 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: 3,493 cases, 39 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 5,579 cases, 87 deaths.
• Ellis County: 7,817 cases, 121 deaths. In Ellis County, the hospitalization rate was 32.5%, County Judge Todd Little said Friday in a written statement.
• Johnson County: 6,213 cases, 113 deaths.

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