Dallas County added an additional 1,243 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, along with 15 additional deaths attributed to the virus. Meanwhile, district officials are warning of forecasts predicting that 1,500 people with the virus will be admitted to the district by January 5, and that it could lead to “less than optimal care” in Dallas County hospitals.
Of the cases reported Monday, the province said 1,142 were confirmed cases and 101 probable cases (antigen test), bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the province as of March to 167,900 and the number of probable (antigen test) cases to 20,223. The total of confirmed and probable cases in the province now stands at 188,123. In the past seven days, Dallas County officials have confirmed 13,583 and confirmed probable cases of the virus.
“Today we are adding 1,243 cases and announcing 15 more deaths in the fight against COVID. We started the day with 27 available ICU rooms in all Dallas County hospitals,” Judge Clay Jenkins in Dallas County said in a statement. UT Southwestern predicts that our hospital numbers will be somewhere between our current level and 1,500 hospital COVID cases on Jan. 5. If we reach the highest point in this number, we will walk through ICU beds and be forced to use less than optimal care. “
The 15 latest victims include a man in his forties from Garland who died in a hospice; a man in his 50s from Garland who lived in a long-term care facility; a woman in her fifties from Dallas; a woman in her sixties from Dallas who lived in a long-term care facility; a man in his sixties from Dallas; a woman in her seventies from Dallas who died in a hospice; a woman in her seventies from Dallas; a Dallas man in his 80’s who died in a hospice; a man in his sixties from Lancaster; a man in his sixties from Farmers Branch; a man in his seventies from Irving; a man in his seventies from Mesquite; a woman in her seventies from Mesquite; a man in his seventies from Rowlett; a woman in her 80’s from DeSoto. All patients were hospitalized, and all but one, a man in his 70s from Mesquite, had underlying health problems.
County officials said on Monday that there have been 1,580 deaths in the county attributed to the virus. Over the summer, Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death in the county behind heart disease and cancer.
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The county said the preliminary seven-day average for new confirmed and probable cases by date of a test collection for CDC week 50 was 1,722, which equates to a rate of 65.3 daily new cases per 100,000 residents.
In the past 30 days, 4,955 COVID-19 cases in school-aged children and staff have been reported from more than 764 individual K-12 schools in Dallas County, including 692 staff. Since the start of the pandemic, 21 school nurses have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Jenkins warned those who had planned traditional New Year’s Eve gatherings and urged them to rethink their plans and take precautions against spreading the virus.
“To help our healthcare heroes make smart decisions and follow the doctor’s advice this New Year season. Wear your mask when you are around people you don’t live with and avoid crowds and gatherings. Think of ways to do that. Celebrate the New Year that is safe not just for us, but for those who will inevitably catch the virus from the people who catch it this New Year, “Jenkins said. “Maybe not you, but your grandmother or someone else’s grandmother who is paying a heavy toll on your decision to have a traditional New Year celebration. Please join the small sacrifice of patriotism to keep our community and country strong until anyone who wants the vaccine can get it and it can get the chance to protect them from the virus. ”