645 New COVID Cases In Dallas County; Judge Says Reporting System Problems Mean 'Artificially Low Numbers'
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 645 additional positive COVID-19 cases in Dallas County on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
Among them are 457 confirmed cases and 188 probable cases.
"There have been problems with the State's electronic laboratory reporting system in the past and today it appears the system is reporting artificially low numbers to several counties," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a statement. "In the meantime, there is little reason to believe that if the full numbers were reported, they would be different than the trend we've been seeing for the last several days or the projections that the medical modelers have made for North Texas."
There is a cumulative total of 111,174 cases (PCR test), including 1,147 confirmed deaths.
There is a cumulative total of 10,186 probable cases (antigen test), including 20 probable deaths.
The county also confirmed four more deaths Tuesday.
"The number one cause of spread at this time are in-home gatherings with friends and family. COVID won't be with us forever," said Judge Jenkins. "The vaccines are very promising and will be here soon, but wishing that it would go away and pretending that things are better than they are will not work."
The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 45 has increased to 958, which is a rate of 37.4 daily new cases per 100,000 residents.
The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 remains high, with 15.3% of symptomatic patients presenting to area hospitals testing positive in week 45 (week ending 11/7/20).
A provisional total of 843 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 45, an increase of 37% from the previous week.
During this past week, ten K-12 schools in Dallas County have initiated temporary closures of their campuses to in-person instruction due to COVID-19 cases.
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.
The additional deaths reported Tuesday include the following:
- A Dallas woman in her 60s who had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
- A Farmers Branch man in his 60s who had been critically ill in an area hospital and did not have underlying high risk health conditions.
- A Dallas woman in her 70s who had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
- A Dallas woman in her 70s who had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
MORE FROM CBSDFW
