DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — Dallas County reported 870 new COVID-19 cases and five additional deaths Tuesday, a three-day total from Saturday through Monday, health officials said.
Last week's three-day total was 626 new cases and the week before that was a four-day total of 319 cases (due to the July 4 holiday).
Health officials reported an outbreak at a day camp in Dallas County of three cases of COVID-19 involving three children between 7-10 years of age.
"In addition to increasing daily cases, our hospitalizations have doubled in July," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "The slope of our upward trend is concerning and is more dramatic in the past week with increased hospital admissions, patients hospitalized and an increased percentage of cases in the ICU. The models continue to predict increases as well."
The North Texas service area has 911 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, which represents 6.4% of bed capacity and 19.9% of adult ICU patients, according to Stephen Love, the President/CEO of Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
As a point of reference, the region had 287 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals on June 20, so hospitalizations have increased significantly in 30 days, according to Love.
Here is a breakdown of the current COVID-19 patients:
- Tarrant County: 321
- Dallas County: 228
- Collin County: 158
- Denton County: 40
- Hunt County: 34
- Rockwall County: 23
According to Love, the majority of the patients are not vaccinated.
"Vaccinations are absolutely helping protect people, and the unvaccinated are very much at risk with the increase in the Delta variant," Love said.
As of the week ending July 10, about 58% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including:
- 84% of residents age 65 years and older
- 66% of residents between 40-64 years of age
- 52% of residents 25-39 years of age
- 42% of residents 18-24 years of age
- 29% of residents 12-17 years of age
In Dallas, a pop-up vaccination clinic at Fair Park will continue over the next two weekends, on Saturday, July 27 and Saturday, July 31 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. in Lot 13.
Texas’ coronavirus test positivity rate exceeds 10% for the first time since February
Meanwhile, the positivity rate - which measures how prevalent the virus is spreading in Texas - has crossed a 10% “red zone” threshold, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
This indicates that the highly-transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading rampantly among the unvaccinated. The positivity rate hasn’t been this high since February, and in mid-June it was as low as 2.8%. Statewide, hospitalizations have increased in the last three weeks.
Meanwhile, more than 40% of Texans are fully vaccinated, and a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll found nearly half of Texas voters have returned to their pre-pandemic lives. But the number of vaccines administered has been declining each month since April.