Dallas County Reports 28 COVID Deaths Friday, Saturday
Dallas County health officials reported a total of 1,296 new cases of COVID Friday and Saturday, with 353 of those cases classified as probable.
The county also quietly confirmed Sunday that it would only report six days a week now – Monday through Saturday.
A total of 28 deaths were reported – 18 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. All those who died were age 50 or older, and 11 were from Dallas.
The county said that the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday was 486 patients. Emergency room visits for COVID-19 symptoms represented about 14% of all ER visits, according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.
During the past 30 days, there were 3,894 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff reported from 628 separate K-12 schools in Dallas County. One death of a teacher in a Dallas County K-12 school from COVID-19 was confirmed this past week. A total of 466 children in Dallas County under 18 years of age have been hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic, including 37 patients diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C). Over 80% of reported MIS-C cases in Dallas have occurred in children who are Hispanic, Latino, or Black.
“We should continue to see the number of reported deaths decline as we come down from the record high case numbers reported in mid-January,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. “And while I know the number of daily cases has decreased over the last few weeks, we should know the true number of daily cases soon following the delays in testing and reporting from the winter weather event.”
While the number of those who are fully vaccinated continues to grow, Jenkins said he was frustrated with the vacillating supply from the state.
“The State has continued to shortchange Dallas County for COVID vaccine first doses,” he said Friday. “If you take into account the reduced allocations to hubs for last week and the upcoming week, as well as the proportionate share of the new vaccine coming to Texas from our federal partners that should go to Dallas County based on our population, we are short about 60,000 doses that could go to our residents.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services Friday said the federal government alloted 676,280 first doses to the state for this week, and the state agency has allocated those doses to 522 providers in 199 counties.
“The total includes 84,240 doses for federally-supported sites in Houston and North Texas and another 52,650 unused doses returned to Texas by the Federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care,” the TDSHS said.
The county’s Fair Park site will receive 21,060 Pfizer doses this week, and the county will also receive another 3,000 Moderna doses. Baylor will receive 2,340 Pfizer doses, the City of Dallas 3,000 Moderna doses, and UT Southwestern and Parkland will get 8,190 and 9,360 Pfizer doses, respectively.
Locally, Cooper Clinic will get 400 doses of Moderna, and Dougherty’s Pharmacy will get 500 doses of Moderna. The Tom Thumb locations at Forest and Marsh and U.S. Highway 75 and Meadow will each get 100 doses of Moderna.
In other news:
- The CDC approved Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine over the weekend, and it will begin shipping this week.
- Jenkins says the 6,000 doses of the new vaccine that the county will receive will be used mostly to vaccinate populations that are less likely to come back for a second dose.
- ERCOT effectively shut down power provider Griddy over the weekend after it missed payments to the grid operator. Then Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he was suing the company for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act “through false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices.”
