2,700 cases of coronavirus and 20 deaths; record hospitalizations in the county

Dallas County surpassed its own predictions for numbers of cases and hospitalizations for its report on Tuesday, January 5.

Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 2,794 new coronavirus cases and 20 deaths.

The UT Southwestern models, weeks ago, predicted that there would be 2,300 cases per day and that there would be between 860 and 1,350 hospitalizations.

“The day we reported record hospitalizations, and almost a record number of cases,” said County Judge Clay Jenkins.

“We have 1,113 hospitalizations for covid-19 and almost 2,800 cases,” which surpasses the UTSW estimates.

In this way, the pandemic reaches 182,156 positives for covid-19 and 1,698 deaths due to the coronavirus disease.

The provisional average for every seven days is 1,787 cases, which indicates that there is a rate of 67.8 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The positivity rate remains extremely high at 26.5%.

In addition to the record number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in intensive care, there were 534 people who came to emergency rooms in the last 24 hours with symptoms of COVID-19.

Right now, 24% of all emergencies are due to covid-19 cases, the report indicates.

Jenkins announced that more vaccination is on the way but asked for caution as the vaccine supply is limited at this time. Biosafety protocols (mask, hand washing and social distance) remain the best alternative to face the virus.