More than 30,000 Texans have died from coronavirus; Dallas County posts record 3,549 cases – The Dallas Morning News

Updated at 4:20 p.m.: Revised to include statewide data.

Dallas County reported a single-day record of 3,549 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, along with 14 additional deaths. Meanwhile, the number of Texans killed by the virus surpassed 30,000, according to state data.

Hospitalizations both in Dallas County and across the state also set new highs, with the latter number topping 14,000 for the first time.

Nine of the latest Dallas County people to die lived in Dallas: a woman in her 40s, three men and two women in their 60s, two men in their 70s and a man in his 80s. The other victims were two Highland Park residents, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s; two Mesquite men, in their 50s and 60s; and a DeSoto man in his 50s.

All 14 had underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for complications from the virus, officials said.

County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement that North Texans are now in the toughest time for COVID spread. He said residents need to help limit the spread to ensure that health care workers are able to administer vaccinations as swiftly as possible.

Activities that seemed safe to you weeks ago are much less safe now, he said. The job of keeping safe and keeping the spread of COVID down falls on all of you.

Dallas Countys previous daily high of new cases, 3,194, was reported Saturday.

Of the new cases reported Tuesday, 2,979 were confirmed and 570 probable. The newly reported cases bring the countys total confirmed cases to 197,359 and probable cases to 25,276. The county has recorded 1,791 total COVID-19 deaths.

The county has said it is counting only positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases; a few antibody and household results were included previously.

While other North Texas counties provide estimates for how many people have recovered from infections, Dallas County officials do not, noting that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not use that metric.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive-care admissions and emergency room visits as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, a record 1,226 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 462 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

Across the state, 26,052 more cases and 286 COVID-19 deaths were reported Tuesday. Of the added cases, 25,301 were new and 751 were older ones recently reported by labs.

Texas has now reported 1,995,292 total cases and 30,219 fatalities.

Of the new cases, 22,110 were confirmed and 3,191 were probable. The state has reported 1,753,059 confirmed cases and 242,233 probable cases.

There were a record 14,218 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 4,158 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On Monday, 25.7% of patients in the hospital region covering the Dallas-Fort Worth area were COVID-19 patients, according to the state dashboard.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide for molecular tests, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 18.4% as of Monday. State health officials said using data based on when people were tested provides the most accurate positivity rate.

For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 12.3%.

Tarrant County reported 1,817 coronavirus cases and 30 new deaths Tuesday.

Nine of the latest victims lived in Fort Worth: two men and a woman in their 60s, two men in their 70s, three men in their 80s and a woman in her 90s. Eight more were from Arlington: a woman in her 60s, a man and two women in their 70s, a man in his 80s and a man and two women in their 90s.

The other victims were four Mansfield women, two in their 60s, one in her 70s and one in her 90s; two North Richland Hills residents, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 90s; an Azle man in his 90s; a Bedford woman in her 90s; a Burleson man in his 70s; a Euless man in his 70s; a Haltom City man in his 70s; a Richland Hills man in his 70s; and a White Settlement man in his 80s.

All but one had underlying high-risk health conditions, health officials said.

The newly reported cases bring the countys total to 180,794: 156,876 confirmed cases and 23,918 probable ones. There had been128,406 recoveries. The death toll stood at 1,762.

According to Tuesdays numbers on the county dashboard, 1,469 people were hospitalized with the virus.

The state added 1,098 coronavirus cases and six new COVID-19 fatalities to Collin Countys totals Tuesday. The county has now posted 58,968 cases and 428 deaths.

No details about the latest victims were available.

Of the new cases, 692 were confirmed and 406 were probable. Collin County has recorded 51,840 confirmed cases and 7,128 probable cases. According to state data, the county has recorded 45,846 recoveries.

The countys coronavirus dashboard provides only total hospitalizations, now at 561.

Denton County reported 579 coronavirus cases of which 542 were active on Tuesday.

No new deaths were reported, leaving the countys toll at 237.

The newly reported cases brought the countys total to 44,158, including 13,495 that are active and 30,426 that are recoveries. They also raised total molecular cases to 35,964 and antigen cases to 8,194.

There were 222 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, the county reported.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

The latest numbers are:

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More than 30,000 Texans have died from coronavirus; Dallas County posts record 3,549 cases - The Dallas Morning News