Dallas County Reports 719 New COVID-19 Cases

Dallas County health officials reported 598 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 121 additional probable cases for a total of 719 cases on Tuesday.

Of the 598 new cases, 320 came via the state’s electronic reporting system, and all were from October.

An additional death was also reported – a Dallas man in his 60s with underlying high-risk health conditions.

The county said that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday was 429 patients. Emergency room visits for COVID-19 symptoms represented about 19% of all ER visits, according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. 

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for the week ending Oct. 24 has increased to 733 — the highest daily average of new cases since July. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive has increased to 15.4% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive.

The county also said that a provisional total of 693 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during that week – more than twice the number of children diagnosed in this age group three weeks ago.

“For the seventh week in a row, we’ve seen our average number of daily cases on the CDC weekly report increase, and for the last three weeks it has increased more than 100 per week,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. “It now stands at 733 average daily cases for the week ending Oct. 24, the highest week on record since July.

“Our positivity rate has risen to 15.4% and our number of positive COVID-19 cases in school-aged children is twice as high as it was three weeks ago,” he said, adding that the county is seeing increased numbers of cases coming from home gatherings.

“We know what we need to do to curve the spread of this virus, we just need to summon the community resolve to do it,” Jenkins said. “Avoid gatherings of people outside your home and find other ways to stay close.”