Dallas ‘Curve Rising’ With 100 New COVID-19 Cases; Two More Deaths Wednesday

NBC 5 DFW ^ | 1 April 2020 | Frank Heinz

[Spktyr]

Dallas County Health and Human Services reports another 100 positive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, including the county's 14th and 15th deaths.

The latest victims of the virus include a man in his 50s who was a resident of Mesquite and a woman in her 80s who was a resident of Garland. They were both critically ill in area hospitals before they passed, but it's not clear if they had any ongoing, chronic health conditions prior to being infected with COVID-19.

The latest number of confirmed cases bring the county's total number of infected people to 731.

"We’re beginning to see the curve rise and we all must do our part to exercise personal responsibility," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "This is to be expected. It’s not a cause of a panic."

County officials said the number of ICU hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the last week exceeded the peak week of ICU hospitalizations from influenza during the 2019-2020 season.

[Spktyr]

Posting this to drop some stats into the discussion:

"Here are the aggregate totals for Tuesday as reported by the eight [Dallas County] hospitals:

Total beds: 2,868 Beds occupied: 1,542 Total ICU beds: 361 ICU beds occupied: 204 Total ventilators: 342 Ventilators in use: 139

Dallas County is only releasing detailed information about the cities where those infected by COVID-19 live on Tuesdays and Fridays.

[cuban leaf]

The number of cases only indicates how much testing is going on. It’s pretty useless.

The death count is what matters.

[Spktyr]

Death count vs known cases, not just death count alone. More significant in the short term is the resource utilization numbers - ICU beds occupied, ventilators used, etc.

Also, note the almost throwaway line in the article: “County officials said the number of ICU hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the last week exceeded the peak week of ICU hospitalizations from influenza during the 2019-2020 season.”

[devane617]

“The death count is what matters.”

Ditto. If the death count is higher than average it indicates a big problem. Who knows how many are infected or has been infected—we can’t know, but we know deaths.

[Jolla]

I agree the death count is a better indicator, here in Tarrant County (Ft Worth Texas) we went from 1 to 3 deaths overnite - I guess this is what the President was talking about.

[Sicon]

Thanks for posting this info! I’ve been wanting to see this sort of data for quite a while.

[WildHighlander57]

Thanks for posting!

hope the hydroxy + azithro can be used soon!

Prayers UP!

[proust]

[Spktyr]

Yeah, that’s the reason I posted it - I noticed it had the kind of stats that would be good to know, albeit buried down the page. The stats on beds available/used, respirators available/used, etc., are the ones most important for short term decision making, IMHO.