Dallas County adds 257 new COVID-19 cases, 16 deaths

DALLAS - Dallas County set a new record Tuesday for both the number of new coronavirus cases and the number of deaths in a single day.

During Commissioner’s Court, health officials announced 257 new COVID-19 cases with 16 deaths. That brings the county’s total to 10,719 cases and 245 deaths.

The county added more than 200 new cases Monday but did not report any deaths.

"We have not seen the unfortunately the 14-day decline that we would like to see in these cases," said Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services. 

Emergency room visits, hospitalizations, ICU beds are all relatively flat in the county. But case numbers have been steady to slightly up.

“The reason we're not seeing a decline is because while most people are being careful, there’s an increasing number of people who are not being careful, who are not wearing masks and so forth and that’s my opinion of what's keeping us steady,” said Dr. Robert Haley, Chief Epidemiologist, U.T. Southwestern.

Haley again emphasized masks make the difference.

“If we could get everybody to wear a mask in public, it’s my strong belief that this will disappear before long,” Haley said.

Throughout North Texas, the number of new coronavirus cases has dropped. But that’s due in large part to the fact that Collin County has turned over the responsibility of reporting cases to the state. It will be a few days before the state starts providing that information.

The seven-day rolling average in North Texas was up for the sixth day in a row.

Statewide, there were only 593 cases reported and six deaths. The statewide seven-day rolling average fell slightly.

Again, changes in reporting by some counties may be keeping some cases off the books for a few days.