Dallas County Reports More Than 4,000 New COVID-19 Cases Over Weekend

A total of 3,822 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus were reported by Dallas County health officials Saturday and Sunday, and an additional 463 probable cases were reported, along with 10 deaths.

Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, the county did not report cases on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, there were 982 additional cases (739 confirmed cases and 243 probable cases) and four deaths. On Sunday, the county reported 3,303 new cases (3,083 confirmed cases and 220 probable cases) from Thursday-Saturday and six deaths.

Among the dead are a Dallas woman in her 40s, a Dallas man in his 50s, a Mesquite man in his 50s, a Lancaster man in his 60s, a Dallas man in his 60s, a Dallas man in his 70s, a DeSoto woman in her 80s, a DeSoto man in his 80s, a Dallas man in his 80s, and a Dallas man in his 90s. All had underlying high-risk health conditions.

“Today we report 3,303 new cases and six deaths but keep in mind this is all COVID-19 positive cases reported Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Sunday. “When you spread that out over the three days, it’s actually a lower number than we’ve been averaging for the last week and probably indicates less people getting tested as most testing facilities were closed Thursday and Friday. 

“We’ll have more accurate numbers again on Tuesday and Wednesday and begin to see any effects from the Thanksgiving holiday by next Friday and into the weekend with a full realization of any uptick manifesting itself by the following weekend.”

The county said that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday was 759. Emergency room visits for COVID-19 symptoms represented about 21% of all ER visits, according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. 

A provisional total of 1,224 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during the week of Nov. 19, a three-fold increase from 5 weeks earlier (week ending Oct. 10). Since Nov. 1, there have been 3,630 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from over 632 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County, including 466 staff members.  A total of 1,282 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) — which is 50% more than the number of cases in this age group reported during the second highest peak week of cases in July. Since Nov. 1, there have been more than 130 COVID-19 cases in children and staff reported from 97 separate daycares in Dallas County. 

The county said that there have been 818 COVID-19 cases reported from 90 separate long-term care facilities, including 309 staff members. Of those cases, 48 were hospitalized and 29 died.

There are also 20 active clusters of cases in congregate-living facilities that have been reported in the past month, accounting for 167 cases – including one facility with 81 confirmed cases. Congregate-living facilities include homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway houses. .

UT Southwestern’s latest forecast projects that by Dec. 8, Dallas County hospitals could see concurrent hospitalizations rise to between 700 and 1,150 cases, with roughly 2,500 new cases per day on average. 

The holidays also meant that school cases were also not updated for the week, and there was no new aggregate report from the county.