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Dallas County reports 541 new coronavirus cases, 7 deaths; ‘too early’ to draw conclusions from lower numbers, Jenkins says

With just three days until Thanksgiving, the county judge made another pitch to limit celebrations to household members.

Dallas County on Monday reported 541 more coronavirus cases, all of them considered new. Seven new COVID-19 deaths were also reported.

Monday’s report was an abrupt departure from the past four days, when the county reported more than 1,800 new cases each day. While early last week saw lower numbers due to a reporting glitch at the state level, County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement that Monday’s numbers are accurate.

But he cautioned residents against drawing broad conclusions from the latest data.

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“While this is good news, it’s too early to call it a trend,” Jenkins said.

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Four of the latest victims lived in Dallas — a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s, a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s. The other victims were a Garland man in his 40s, a Grand Prairie man in his 60s and a Lancaster woman in her 60s. All had underlying health problems.

With just three days until Thanksgiving, Jenkins addressed residents over Facebook Live on Monday, asking people to limit their holiday celebrations to members of their own households and to avoid Black Friday shopping in stores.

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“Can’t you find a way — through Zoom, through Facebook Live, through cards, through traditional phone calls — to let your cousin and his wife, your sister and her kids, know how thankful you are for them? How much you love them?” Jenkins said.

Of the new cases reported Monday, 521 are confirmed and 20 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 119,483 and probable cases to 11,244. The county has recorded 1,191 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 27 probable deaths.

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The county recently announced it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and “household” results were included previously.

While other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from the virus, Dallas County officials do not report recoveries, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use that metric.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive-care admissions and emergency-room visits as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. The county will next report hospitalization data Tuesday.

The county’s provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases for the latest reporting period, Nov. 8-14, was 1,321, the highest case rate the county has seen so far. The figure is calculated by the date of the COVID-19 test collection, according to the county.

The county reported that during the same period, 1,224 school-age children tested positive for COVID-19.

Dallas County doesn’t provide a positivity rate for all COVID-19 tests conducted in the area; county health officials have said they don’t have an accurate count of how many tests are conducted each day. But as of the county’s most recent reporting period, 16.8% of people who showed up at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. That’s an increase from the previous reporting period, when 15.3% such patients tested positive.

Jenkins has said that because the county bases its report on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule, the seven-day average, total cases among school-age children and positive respiratory specimen rate all lag by at least seven days.

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Statewide data

Across the state, 6,576 more cases and 32 COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday. Texas has reported 1,100,979 confirmed cases and 20,588 fatalities.

There are 8,353 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,297 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 11.1% as of Sunday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.

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The state also provides a positivity rate based on when lab results were reported to the state; that rate stood at 12.4% as of Sunday.

Officials previously calculated Texas’ coronavirus positivity rate by dividing the most recent seven days of new positive test results by the most recent seven days of total new test results. By that measure, the positivity rate is now 9.2%, according to the state dashboard.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said that positivity rate data based on lab results and new cases will likely be phased out but is still being provided for transparency and continuity purposes.

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Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 1,124 coronavirus cases and no new deaths Monday.

The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 92,977, including 82,586 confirmed cases, 10,391 probable cases and 66,485 recoveries. The death toll stands at 830.

According to Monday’s numbers on the county dashboard, 778 people are hospitalized with the virus.

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Collin County

The state added 403 coronavirus cases to Collin County’s total Monday, bringing the tally to 23,784. One new COVID-19 fatality also was reported, bringing the county’s death toll to 239.

No details about the latest victims were available.

According to state data, the county has 3,031 active cases of the virus and has recorded 20,753 recoveries.

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The county’s coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 292.

Denton County

Denton County reported a record 484 coronavirus cases — of which 348 are active — and one new death Monday.

The latest death was of a woman who lived in Flower Mound. County officials said she was over the age of 80.

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The newly reported cases bring the county’s total to 21,937, including 4,851 that are active and 16,939 that are recoveries. The death toll stands at 147.

The newly reported cases raised the county’s total molecular cases to 18,714, while antigen cases stand at 3,223.

There are 129 COVID-19 patients hospitalized — an all-time high — according to the county’s data.

Other counties

The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

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The latest numbers are:

  • Rockwall County: 2,538 cases, 36 deaths.
  • Kaufman County: 4,315 cases, 76 deaths.
  • Ellis County: 6,107 cases, 107 deaths.
  • Johnson County: 4,842 cases, 94 deaths.

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