Texas surpasses 2 million total cases of coronavirus; Dallas County records 21 deaths, exceeding 1,800

With the addition of nearly 27,000 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, Texas surpassed more than 2 million total cases during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Dallas County reported on Wednesday 2,994 new cases of coronavirus and 21 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the county’s death toll to more than 1,800.

Ten of the victims were Dallas residents: a woman in her 40s, a man in her 50s, a man and a woman in her 60s, a man and a woman in her 70s, three men in her 80s and a man in his 90s.

The 11 other victims include a Glenn Heights man in his 40s, a Richardson woman in his 50s, a man in Grand Prairie in his 50s, a man in Duncanville in his 60s, a man in Grand Prairie in his 60s an Irving man in his 60s, a Richardson man in his 60s, a Garland man in his 70s, a man in Duncanville in his 70s, a Carrollton man in his 80s and a DeSoto woman in his 80s .

All but one victim had underlying health problems, the county said.

Of the cases added in Dallas County on Wednesday, 2,589 were confirmed and 405 were likely. New reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 199,948 and probable cases to 25,681. The county recorded 1,812 COVID-19 deaths.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said UT Southwestern Medical Center updated its coronavirus prediction models to show that by January 22, the county could have up to 1,900 COVID-19 hospitalized patients and about 3,600 new cases per day.

“These are worrying numbers,” said Jenkins in a written statement. “Our hospitals are very tight now and our health heroes have been working tirelessly since last spring.”

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. In the 24-hour period ended on Tuesday, 1,197 patients with COVID-19 were in intensive care at hospitals in the municipality. During the same period, 572 visits to the emergency room were for symptoms of the disease.

The county reported that, during the past 30 days, 7,310 schoolchildren tested positive for COVID-19 in 674 schools in Dallas County, with 1,842 of the cases reported during the last week of December. A total of 41 cases were reported among school nurses and nursing assistants, 19 of which were diagnosed last week, the county said.

The county’s seven-day provisional average of new confirmed and probable daily cases for the period from December 27 to January 27. 2 reporting period was 2,227. The amount is calculated up to the date of collection of COVID-19, according to the municipality.

Dallas County does not provide a positivity rate for all COVID-19 tests performed in the area; County health officials said they did not have an accurate count of how many tests are performed per day. But in the county’s most recent reporting period, 31% of people who came to hospitals with symptoms of COVID-19 tested positive for the virus.

State data

Across the state, an additional 26,808 cases and 405 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Wednesday. Texas now reported 2,022,635 total cases and 30,624 deaths.

Of the new cases, 22,270 were confirmed and 4,538 were probable. The state notified 1,775,619 confirmed cases and 247,016 probable cases.

The state also added 290 older confirmed cases and 245 older probable cases that were recently reported by laboratories.

There are 14,106 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 4,104 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As of Tuesday, 25.04% of patients in the hospital area covering 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 17.89% on Tuesday. 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 13.02%.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported 2,286 cases of coronavirus and 15 new deaths on Wednesday.

The latest victims include an Arlington man, a Fort Worth woman, a Hurst woman and a North Richland Hills woman in her 60s; an Arlington woman and a Fort Worth man and woman in their 70s; a Fort Worth man, a Richland Hills woman and a Bedford man and woman in her 80s; and two Arlington women, a Mansfield woman and a Pantego man in his 90s.

All but three victims had underlying health problems.

The new reported cases bring the county total to 183,080, including 158,423 confirmed cases, 24,657 probable cases and 130,469 recoveries. The death toll is 1,777.

According to Wednesday’s figures on the county panel, 1,446 people are hospitalized with the virus.

Collin County

The state added 1,299 cases of coronavirus and 11 new deaths from COVID-19 to Collin County’s total on Wednesday. The county has already recorded 60,267 cases and a death toll of 439.

No details on the latest victims were available.

Of the new cases, 726 were confirmed and 573 were likely. Collin County recorded 52,566 confirmed cases and 7,701 probable cases. According to state data, the municipality has 5,754 active cases and recorded 46,812 recoveries.

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

Denton County

Denton County reported 650 cases of coronavirus – of which 529 are active – and no new deaths on Wednesday.

The new reported cases bring the county total to 44,808, including 13,580 active and 30,991 in recovery. They also increase the total molecular cases to 36,467 and the antigen cases to 8,341.

The death toll in the county is 237.

There are 231 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized, the county reports.

Other counties

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

The last numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 7,876 cases (6,596 confirmed and 1,280 probable), 64 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 11,066 cases (9,662 confirmed and 1,404 probable), 146 deaths.
• Ellis County: 15,799 cases (13,933 confirmed and 1,866 probable), 187 deaths.
• Johnson County: 13,744 cases (12,258 confirmed and 1,486 likely), 191 deaths.