Dallas County Sets Daily Record of COVID-19 Deaths, 36


Wednesday was the deadliest day for COVID-19 in Dallas County as 36 people died from the coronavirus.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the record number of deaths is a “grim reminder of the severity of this outbreak.”

Along with the 36 new deaths, Dallas County health officials reported 704 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

This brings the county totals to 48,732 cases and 658 coronavirus deaths.

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The ages of the 36 new deaths ranged from a Dallas man in his 40s to three men and a 90-year-old woman.

Most of the 36 people who died from the coronavirus had at least one underlying health condition. Six of them were people who lived in long-term care facilities.

Dr. Mark Casanova, president of the Dallas County Medical Society, said that we could continue to see a large number of deaths from COVID-19. They are to be expected because deaths lag behind new cases.

So while the numbers of cases are decreasing, the people who became seriously ill when the cases increased are now losing their battle against the virus.

“It takes our breath away to believe that we are in an improvement stage, only to know that the number of lives lost increases dramatically,” said Dr. Casanova. “This is kind of a double wave, so to speak. The first wave of actual infections and hospitalizations, and even as that slows with everyone’s great efforts, we are now seeing the second wave: the wave of death that generally lags a couple to several weeks behind the initial wave. “

Dr. Casanova added that these were premature and preventable deaths, and reminds people to wash their hands, stay socially distant, and wear a mask.

But new research suggests that we could turn the corner as soon as this week.

Dr. Rajesh Nandy teaches biostatistics and epidemiology at the UNT Health Sciences Center in Fort Worth.

“All I can say is that in the short term we will probably see a decrease in the number of deaths,” he said.

Dr. Nandy came out with a new report that estimates a 14-day delay between cases and deaths. Using that number, he estimates that the state peak of deaths will come on Saturday.

“We can see that based on when the most recent peak came in terms of new cases, we expect to see the peak in terms of new deaths by August 1.”

But Dr. Nandy says his projection is short-term and based on current trends, including the drop in hospitalizations tied to increased social distancing and wearing masks in place for weeks.

If people relax, Dr. Nandy says that anything is a possibility.

“We have to be very clear that the decrease that I am predicting is very short term because we do not know what happens to the daily number of new cases,” he said. “My feeling is that until there is an effective vaccine or retrovirus, we will see some ups and downs. But we have to do everything we can to restrict the increases and expect people to comply. “

Hospitalization levels remain high, although they are not rising at the rate they once were.

Dr. Nandy says it is his biggest concern right now because hospitals don’t have much leeway if there is another increase in cases.

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