Dallas County Reports Lowest Number of New COVID-19 Cases in 7 Weeks; 14-Day Average Drops for Ninth Day – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Dallas County is reporting three more COVID-19 related deaths Monday along with another 382 new confirmed cases of the infection and the ninth-consecutive drop in the 14-day average.

The latest three victims of the virus include:

• A Mesquite woman in her 60s who had underlying health conditions and had been critically ill in a hospital ICU with the virus.
• A Dallas man in his 70s who was a resident of a long-term care facility with underlying health conditions and who had been critically ill in a hospital ICU with the virus.
• An Irving man in his 80s who had underlying health conditions and had been critically ill in a hospital ICU with the virus.

The new cases reported Monday are the lowest number of new cases reported in seven weeks when 306 cases were reported on June 16. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the number of new cases reported Monday is, “growing evidence that masking, maintaining a six-foot distance and avoiding unnecessary trips outside the home for anything but work or exercise is working.”

“We need to continue our community resolve to get the coronavirus under control so that less people get sick, more businesses stay open and our kids can get back to school sooner rather than later,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said there has also been a decrease in visits to the COVID-19 testing sites and that there is plenty of testing capacity available, low wait times and relatively fast turnaround times on tests with most people getting results in two or three days.

In the last seven days, Dallas County has added 4,251 new cases of the virus, for an average of 607 cases per day; the 7-day average has dropped for three straight days from 747 on Friday to 607 on Monday.

The 14-day average of new cases has dropped for nine consecutive days from 956 on July 25 to 657 on Monday. The 382 new cases reported Monday is well below both the 7-day average and the 14-day average.

The county has now accumulated 51,490 cases of the virus since testing began in March. There have been 691 deaths attributed in the county to the virus, which, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang, is now the third leading cause of death in the county behind diseases of the heart and cancers. Since March 20, the date of the first reported COVID-19 related death in Dallas County, the county has averaged five deaths per day.

Of cases requiring hospitalization, two-thirds of all COVID-19 patients have been under 65 years of age, and about half do not have high-risk chronic health conditions. Diabetes has been an underlying high-risk health condition reported in about a third of all hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

The county has been reporting for several weeks now that more than a third of the deaths related to COVID-19 have been among residents of long-term care facilities.