Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 2,512 additional positive cases of COVID-19 in Dallas County on Wednesday, Dec. 23.
Of those, 1,835 are confirmed cases and 677 are probable cases.
There is a cumulative total of 160,189 confirmed cases (PCR test). There is a cumulative total of 19,229 probable cases (antigen test).
A total of 1,544 Dallas County residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19 illness after 30 more deaths were announced Wednesday.
The deaths range from a man in his 20s who was found dead, to women in her 100s who had been hospitalized.
“As of this morning, we had 17 remaining ICU beds in Dallas Co., the worst we’ve seen so far,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a tweet. “If we reach the predicted worst-case scenarios, we will surpass our capacity. While hospitals can add beds, we don’t have the ability to easily add physicians, nurses, other clinical staff.”
Judge Jenkins said things could get worse in the next couple of weeks.
“The latest COVID predictions from UTSW, show a sharp increase in cases per day and hospitalizations. Up to 2,700 cases per day and 1,500 hospitalizations by January 5th. Whether we reach these record highs is entirely up to the personal decisions we all make in the next few days,” he said.
The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 50 was 1,722, which is a rate of 65.3 daily new cases per 100,000 residents.
The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 23.3% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 50 (week ending 12/12/20).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,864 healthcare workers and first responders have been reported with COVID-19 in Dallas County.
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. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 21 school nurses have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
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.
Thirty-nine outbreaks of COVID-19 in congregate-living facilities (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) have been reported in the past 30 days associated with 172 cases, including 6 hospitalizations. One facility has reported 93 COVID-19 outbreak cases since October.
Of all confirmed cases requiring hospitalization to date, more than two-thirds have been under 65 years of age.
Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
