Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins Calls For Working From Home, Curtailing Trips During Spike In COVID-19 Cases
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 808 additional positive COVID-19 cases in Dallas County on Thursday, Nov. 12, along with two deaths.
That case total total includes 411 confirmed cases and 397 probable cases.
There is a cumulative total of 105,788 cases (PCR test), including 1,140 confirmed deaths.
The county also reports a cumulative total of 9,328 probable cases (antigen test), including 19 probable deaths.
The additional deaths reported Thursday include a Mesquite woman in her 50s and a Dallas man in his 70s. Both had underlying high risk health conditions.
"Over the last seven days, we have seen a daily average of 1,108 new COVID cases, a sharp increase from the last reported CDC week where we saw the average daily new COVID cases of 779. As our numbers grow, our hospitals are filling and our healthcare heroes are becoming stretched and exhausted. It's important for people to remember that the healthcare safety net is more than beds, but includes people, and over the last nine months our people have been worked to new extremes," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a statement.
Jenkins is asking area businesses to move swiftly to complete telecommuting to the fullest extent possible.
"Please do not wait until after Thanksgiving to move to telecommuting but rather do so immediately. Also, we ask that everyone curtail your trips outside the home. This is the year to do your Black Friday shopping online only, to celebrate Thanksgiving with just your nuclear family, and to forgo invitations to friend's homes or trips to restaurants, bars, and other crowded venues. Consider grocery delivery or curbside pickup, and if you choose to frequent a restaurant, choose delivery or curbside pickup during this spike in cases," Judge Jenkins said.
He said according to UTSW, Dallas County is at 56% compliance with the safety protocols the CDC says can keep people safe.
"If we can reach 65% compliance, we can flatten out this spike," said Jenkins.
Nearly 7K Texas Coronavirus Patients Hospitalized During Spike In Cases
The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 44 has increased to 779, which is a rate of 30.0 daily new cases per 100,000 residents.
The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 14.8% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 44 (week ending 10/31/20).
A provisional total of 608 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 44, an almost two-fold increase from the numbers of children diagnosed in this age group 4 weeks earlier (CDC week ending 10/3/2020).
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.
Of the total confirmed deaths reported to date, about 24% have been associated with long-term care facilities.
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