Dallas County adds 199 more coronavirus cases, 4 deaths

Updated at 5:56 p.m.: Revised to include statewide data.

Dallas County reported 197 more confirmed coronavirus cases Sunday — all of them from September — and two additional probable cases. Four 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 197 confirmed cases reported Sunday, Dallas County health officials said 18 came from the state’s reporting system. The remaining 179 confirmed cases were reported directly to the county health department.

The latest victims included two people who lived at long-term care facilities: a Carrollton woman in her 50s and a DeSoto man in his 60s. Both had underlying health problems.

The remaining victims were a Dallas woman in her 50s who had been hospitalized and had underlying health problems and a Dallas woman in her 90s without underlying health problems who was found dead at home.

One of the four deaths reported Sunday was classified as a probable COVID-19 case, but a spokeswoman for the Dallas County judge’s office declined to specify which it was.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 81,175. The county’s confirmed death toll stands at 1,020.

The two probable cases Dallas County reported Sunday brought its total number of probable cases to 3,924, which includes 13 probable COVID-19 deaths. Probable cases and deaths include people who had a positive antigen test (sometimes called rapid tests); had antibodies for the virus; or had COVID-19 symptoms and contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.

Although other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, saying it’s 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. The county will next report hospitalization data Tuesday.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Sept. 13 through 19, was 296, an increase from the previous reporting period. The figure is calculated by the date of the COVID-19 test collection, according to the county.

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 its most recent reporting period, 11.9% 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 10% such patients tested positive.

The county reported that between Sept. 13 and 19, 225 school-age children tested positive for COVID-19.

More than two-thirds of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization so far have been in people under 65, and diabetes has been an underlying condition in about a third of all hospitalized patients, according to the county.

Statewide data

Across the state, 1,292 more cases and 37 COVID-19 deaths were reported Sunday. Texas has reported 735,132 confirmed cases and 15,522 fatalities.

There are 3,217 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 804 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 6.15% as of Saturday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested will provide 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 9.46% as of Saturday.

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 7.35%, according to its dashboard.

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

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 170 coronavirus cases and no new deaths Sunday.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 49,329, including 3,478 probable cases. The death toll stands at 653, and 43,275 people have recovered.

According to the county dashboard, 265 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Denton County

Denton County officials have said they will no longer report new coronavirus data on Sundays.

As of Saturday, the county had reported 11,985 cases, including 1,577 active cases and 10,299 recoveries. The death toll is 109.

Collin County

Collin County reported 24 coronavirus cases and no new deaths Sunday.

The county has 940 active cases, and 12,597 people have recovered from the virus. According to the county dashboard, 99 people are hospitalized with the virus.

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

Other counties

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

The latest numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 1,629 cases, 26 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 3,136 cases, 47 deaths.
• Ellis County: 4,398 cases, 68 deaths.
• Johnson County: 3,011 cases, 50 deaths.

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