Deadliest Day In Dallas County With 20 More COVID-19 Deaths, Record 601 New Cases Also Reported
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 601 additional positive cases COVID-19 on Tuesday and 20 more deaths.
The new numbers bring the total case count in Dallas County to 21,338 and the total deaths to 373.
"Today we've surpassed 600 new cases of COVID-19 for the first time, having surpassed 300 cases only 20 days ago," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a statement. "Additionally, this is our deadliest day thus far in the outbreak. Twenty residents are being reported as COVID-19 casualties today, exceeding our previous high of 16 deaths. Finally, our hospitalization numbers continue to increase. Local COVID-19 hospitalizations yesterday were at an all-time high of 619 compared to 296 30 days ago."
Judge Jenkins said the time for decisive action on stopping the spread of COVID-19 was several weeks ago and once again called for a statewide masking order.
As of now, Governor Greg Abbott is leaving it up to Texas counties to decide whether or not to require businesses to mandate their employees and customers wear masks.
Jenkins pointed to a Goldman Sachs estimate that a national masking order would save the economy one-trillion dollars.
"When you divide that by the population of Texas, we can save S87 billion dollars to our economy, and countless lives by all wearing a mask. We need this to be a statewide requirement and I am again calling on Governor Abbott to make masks the law throughout Texas," he said.
With the Fourth of July this coming weekend, Judge Jenkins warned residents not "to let our guard down again and exacerbate what is already a quickly worsening problem. We can't let that happen. Together we can defeat COVID-I9, but it takes all of us working together and protecting one another as we protect ourselves," he said.
Among the newly reported deaths, two men in their 30s, including one from Dallas who was found deceased in his home and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.