City of DeSoto issued the following announcement on July 8
As of 2:00 pm July 7, 2021 Dallas County Health and Human Services is reporting 319 additional positive cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Dallas County, 265 confirmed cases and 54 probable cases. There is a cumulative total of 263,629 confirmed cases (PCR test). There is a cumulative total of 43,723 probable cases (antigen test). A total of 4,139 Dallas County residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19 illness. Due to the observance of the Independence Day holiday, today’s reporting includes data from Saturday, July 3 through Tuesday, July 6
Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) is providing initial vaccinations to those most at risk of exposure to COVID-19 and over 496,000 total doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered at the Fair Park mega-vaccine clinic, which started operations on Monday, January 11. Vaccine operations for both first and second doses continue weekly at Fair Park and the full operating schedule can be found here.
The additional deaths being reported today include the following:
– A man in his 40’s who was a resident of the City of Seagoville. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
– A man in his 50’s who was a resident of the City of Dallas. He had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions.
An additional 6 SARS-CoV-2 variants have been reported in unvaccinated individuals. Since the Epsilon variant is no longer being classified as a variant of concern, 9 of these B.1.4128 variants are being removed from our totals. To date, a total of 163 cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern have been identified in residents of Dallas County, including: 135 cases of variant B.1.1.7 (Alpha); two B.1.351 (Beta) variants; nine B.1.617.2 (Delta) variants; and seventeen P.1 (Gamma) variants. Sixteen have been hospitalized and three have died. One fully vaccinated patient subsequently became ill from B.1.1.7 infection and died. The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 24 (week ending 6/19/21), was 78, which is a rate of 3.0 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Over the past 2 weeks, rates of new COVID-19 diagnoses in the cities of Addison, Lancaster, Sachse and Seagoville have been about 50% higher than county-wide case rates. Rates of new COVID-19 diagnoses in the city of Cedar Hill, Garland and Rowlett have been about 30% higher than county-wide case rates.
As of the week ending 6/26/2021, about 58% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including: 83% of residents age 65 years and older; 64% of residents between 40-64 years of age; 50% of residents 25-39 years of age; 39% of residents 18-24 years of age; and 26% of residents 12-17 years of age. In the cities of Coppell and Sunnyvale, greater than 85% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In the cities of Addison and Highland Park, about 75% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. (See below) About 90% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in June were in Dallas County residents who were not fully vaccinated. In Dallas County, 955 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated individuals have been confirmed to date, of which 92 (10%) were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 13 have died.
During the months of April, May and June, 20% of all COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Dallas County were in children under the age of 18 years. To date, 68 children have been hospitalized with diagnoses of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a rare but serious complication associated with COVID-19 infection. Of all Dallas County residents tested for COVID-19 by PCR during the week ending 6/26/21 (CDC week 25), 3.8% of respiratory specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. For week 24, area hospital labs have continued to report elevated numbers and proportions of respiratory specimens that are positive for other respiratory viruses by molecular tests: parainfluenza (16%), rhinovirus/enterovirus (24%) and RSV (21%).
There are currently 4 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 4,405 residents and 2,481 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,127 have been hospitalized and 811 have died. About 20% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with longterm care facilities. One outbreak of COVID-19 in a congregate-living facility (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) has been reported in the past 30 days. A cumulative total of 639 residents and 225 staff members in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed data dashboards and summary reports updated on Friday evenings, available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/dailyupdates.php.
Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The most recent COVID-19 hospitalization data for Dallas County, as reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council, can be found at www.dallascounty.org/covid-19 under “Monitoring Data,” and is updated regularly. This data includes information on the total available ICU beds, suspected and confirmed COVID-19 ER visits in the last 24 hours, confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and COVID-19 deaths by actual date of death. The most recent forecasting from UTSW can be found here.
“The numbers today are from a four-day period of Saturday through Tuesday. Unfortunately, COVID-19 cases are going in the wrong direction. Cases are up in and around Dallas County in adults and in children. As of yesterday, hospitalizations have increased to 135 in the county and 468 in the region. This is the highest it’s been since mid-May. Many patients in the hospital are younger, 18-49 years old, and do not have underlying diseases. Almost none of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients have been vaccinated. Healthcare workers are very concerned about this trend. In addition to the increased number of individuals in the hospital, admissions have been going up as well, meaning that more people are cycling through the hospital with COVID. The Delta variant is increasing rapidly. It was only 12% of our COVID cases two months ago but is currently 37% of the cases in Texas. This and other variants are leading to the increase in cases. If you have not already gotten your vaccine, please get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
All Dallas County COVID-19 Updates and Information can be found here: https://www.dallascounty.org/covid-19/ and all guidance documents can be found here: https://www.dallascounty.org/covid-19/guidance-health.php
Specific Guidance for the Public:
• Dallas County COVID-19 Related Health Guidance for the Public
• Dallas County Guidance for Individuals at High-Risk for Severe COVID-19
Original source can be found here.