Dallas County reports more than 3,000 COVID-19 infections for the first time

Dallas County surpassed 3,000 new daily cases of COVID-19 on Saturday for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Dallas County reported 3,194 more cases of coronavirus on Saturday. It also reported ten new deaths from covid-19.

The most recent fatalities included six city residents of Dallas, including a 60-year-old man, two 70-year-old men and one woman, an 80-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman.

Other victims included two Cedar Hill men, one in their 60s and one in their 80s, an 80-year-old Mesquite woman and an 80-year-old Carrollton woman.

All of the victims reported Saturday had high-risk underlying health conditions, according to the county.

The state also announced Saturday that it will open two new centers in North Texas where certain patients could seek therapeutic infusions for the virus.

“All of these (contagion) numbers are causing a lack of (available) bed capacity in hospitals and optimal care in our hospitals,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a prepared statement. “Our health heroes and everyone with an underlying condition of any kind need your help to get through these darkest days of the covid pandemic.”

Of the new cases reported on Saturday, 2,293 are confirmed and 901 are probable. The newly reported cases bring the county’s total confirmed cases to 190,580 and probable cases to 24,393. The county has recorded 1,766 confirmed deaths from covid-19.

The county has said it is only counting positive antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) as probable cases.

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