County Averages 1,865 New Cases Over Four-Day Weekend

A total of 6,569 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus were reported by Dallas County health officials over the four-day holiday weekend, and an additional 893 probable cases were reported, along with 21 deaths.

On Saturday, the county reported 1,318 cases (1,089 confirmed cases and 229 probable) and 10 deaths and on Sunday, 6,144 cases (5,480 confirmed and 664 probable) and 11 deaths from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

That averages to roughly 1,865 cases per day over the four day weekend.

Among the dead are an Irving woman in her 20s who died in a hospital emergency room, a Grand Prairie man in his 40s, a Dallas man in his 40s, four Dallas men in their 50s – one died in a hospital ER, a Seagoville woman in her 50s, a Garland man in his 50s, a Dallas woman in her 60s, two Irving women in their 70s – one died in hospice care, a Rowlett man in his 70s, a Dallas man in his 70s who died in a hospital ER, and two Dallas women in their 80s. All had underlying high-risk health conditions.

The county said there are currently 100 active long-term care facility outbreaks. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 2,696 residents and 1,590 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.  Of these, 640 have been hospitalized and 323 have died.

About 22% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities including a woman in her 60s who lived in a Lancaster facility, a man in his 80s who died in the Lancaster facility he lived in, a man in his 80s who lived in a Dallas facility, a woman in her 80s who lived in a Dallas facility, and a woman in her 80s who died in the Irving facility she lived in.

Thirty-nine outbreaks of COVID-19 in congregate-living facilities like homeless shelters and group homes have been reported in the past 30 days associated with 172 cases, including six hospitalizations.  One facility has reported 93 COVID-19 outbreak cases since October.

The county said that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday (the last day reported before the holidays) was 989 patients. Emergency room visits for COVID-19 symptoms represented about 24% of all ER visits, according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. 

UT Southwestern’s latest forecast projects that by Jan. 5, Dallas County hospitals could see concurrent hospitalizations rise to between 940 and 1,500 cases, with roughly 2,700 new cases per day on average. 

Over the past 30 days, there have been 4,955 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from 764 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County, including 692 staff members, health officials said Saturday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 21 school nurses have been diagnosed with COVID-19.