Dallas County reports 1,867 new cases of coronavirus, plus 4 deaths; Tarrant County adds 21 deaths

Updated at 17:11: Revised to include state data.

Dallas County on Monday reported 1,867 new cases of coronavirus and four additional deaths from COVID-19.

Two of the last victims were Richardson men, in their 50s and 70s. The other two were a Cedar Hill man in his 60s and a DeSoto man in his 70s. All four had underlying health conditions that put them at greater risk of complications from the virus, officials said.

Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement that with the opening of the Dallas County mega vaccination site in Fair Park on Monday, officials hope to immunize thousands of people a week against the disease.

He warned that January and February will continue to be difficult months, as hospitalizations for coronavirus and new infections remain high. But in March, many health professionals and North Texans most vulnerable to COVID-19 will have protection against the disease, he said.

Each month in a row, we must become stronger in our battle against COVID, but it depends on the smart decisions of all of us, doing everything we can with small sacrifices and smart decisions, ”said Jenkins.

Of the new cases reported on Monday, 1,813 are confirmed and 54 are likely. New reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 194,380 and probable cases to 24,706. The county recorded 1,777 deaths in total COVID-19.

The county said it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; some antibody and “household” results have been included previously.

While other counties in northern Texas provide estimates of 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 this metric.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and visits to emergency rooms as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. Hospitalizations have reached record levels in the past few days, but due to a delay in weekend reports, new data will be available next Tuesday.

State data

Across the state, an additional 14,831 cases and 56 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Monday, including 14,651 new cases and 180 older cases that were recently reported by laboratories. Texas has already reported 1,969,240 total cases and 29,933 deaths.

Of the new cases, 13,308 were confirmed and 1,343 were likely. The state notified 1,730,312 confirmed cases and 238,928 probable cases.

There are 13,397 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 3,899 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

On Sunday, 27.1% of patients in the region of the hospital that covers the Dallas-Fort Worth area were patients with COVID-19, according to the state panel.

The seven-day average positivity rate across the state for molecular testing, based on the date of collection of the test sample, was 18.7% on Sunday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate rate of positivity.

For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 11.8%.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 2,187 cases of coronavirus and 21 new deaths on Monday.

Eight of the last victims were Arlington residents: two men and one woman in their 40s, two women in their 60s, one woman in their 70s and two women in their 80s.

Seven more lived in Fort Worth: a man and woman in their 50s, three men in their 60s, a woman in their 70s and a man in their 90s.

The other victims were three North Richland Hills residents, a man and a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s; a Grand Prairie woman in her 50s; a woman from Haltom City in her 50s; and a man from Sansom Park in his 40s.

All 21 had underlying high-risk health conditions, officials said.

The new reported cases bring the county total to 178,977, including 155,378 confirmed cases, 23,599 probable cases and 127,218 recoveries. The death toll is 1,732.

According to Monday’s figures on the county panel, 1,448 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 882 cases of coronavirus to the Collin County total on Monday. No additional deaths were reported.

The county has already recorded 57,870 cases and a death toll of 422.

Of the new cases, 836 were confirmed and 46 were likely. Collin County recorded 51,148 confirmed cases and 6,722 probable cases. According to state data, the municipality recorded 44,894 recoveries.

The county coronavirus panel provides only the total number of hospitalizations, now at 552.

Denton County

Denton County reported 476 cases of coronavirus – of which 404 are active – and four new deaths on Monday.

The latest victims were two Denton residents, a man in his 50s and a man in his 70s who lived in the Good Samaritan Society Denton Village; a Lewisville man over 80; and a woman from Plano over 80 who lived in Prestonwood Court.

The new reported cases bring the county total to 43,580, including 13,367 active and 29,976 in recovery. They also increase the total molecular cases to 35,502 and the antigen cases to 8,078.

The death toll in the county is 237.

There is a record of 235 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, reports the county.

Other counties

The Texas Department of Health Services has taken over the reports for these other counties in northern Texas. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

The last numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 7,481 cases (6,247 confirmed and 1,234 probable), 60 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 10,538 cases (9,181 confirmed and 1,357 probable), 142 deaths.
• Ellis County: 14,984 cases (13,191 confirmed and 1,793 likely), 185 deaths.
• Johnson County: 12,912 cases (11,492 confirmed and 1,420 probable), 184 deaths.