Dallas County approaching COVID-19 case peak, officials say

DALLAS - Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Thursday the county is getting very close to its COVID-19 peak in July and that people need to act now to change the trajectory.

Jenkins says the models predict record case levels of coronavirus in the county a week from now without a change of habits. That projected daily case number is about 2,000.

In Dallas County alone, hospital cases are up 150-percent since early October.

With a spike in cases and hospitalizations, it's not surprising testing sites are seeing lines that are longer than usual. Footage from SKY4 showed a long line of cars at one such site in North Dallas on Thursday afternoon.

Jenkins wants people to start getting serious about staying at home -- even before the Thanksgiving holiday.

He suggested working from home and avoiding large crowds. He also spoke extensively about keeping holiday gatherings and numbers of guests.

Dallas County reported 808 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths on Thursday.

North Texas set a new record-high for hospitalized COVID-19 patients on Thursday with 1,986.

The two leaders of North Texas’ largest counties have a similar message. They would like additional power or safety restrictions to handle the rising COVID-19 cases.

Governor Greg Abbott’s emergency orders have effectively blocked counties from taking action of their own.

The county judges in Tarrant and Dallas counties believe more might be necessary.

If North Texas continues on its current trajectory, some restrictions will kick in automatically, per the governor’s emergency order.

But there's discussion as to whether that's soon enough, or strong enough.

Thursday was yet another day with long lines of people awaiting COVID-19 tests in North Texas.

And the rhetoric from local health officials about the situation is ramping up.

“We are extremely concerned about this situation,” Dallas County Health Director Dr. Philip Huang said.

Hospitalizations in Dallas and Tarrant counties are up 150% from a low point in late September.

New modeling out of UT Southwestern on Thursday projects hospitalizations will reach record levels in the next week or so in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

“We have got to act aggressively to stem the tide of this or you’re going to see numbers like you’ve never seen before in new COVID infections and hospitalizations,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.

Dallas County’s Public Health Committee drafted a letter Thursday calling on Gov. Abbott to take stiffer measures.

The request includes ending rule changes that have allowed bars to open as restaurants, closing indoor dining at restaurants, giving school districts additional latitude to move to remote-only after Thanksgiving, limiting indoor activities to 10 people or less, and reducing retail business occupancy to 25%, and other non-essential businesses to 50%.

“What we’re looking at right now is we’re reaching out to the governor and we’re asking him to do some of the things he can do, along with our medical community, and allowing us the latitude to do this thing,” Jenkins explained.

Gov. Abbott’s current executive order does call for an automatic reduction in capacity if a region of the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations is 15% or higher of total hospital capacity for seven straight days.

It’s nearly 12% in North Texas, up from 6% in mid-October.

In an interview Wednesday with our sister station, FOX 7 in Austin, the governor pointed to the state’s past success dealing with the virus.

“Remember a couple things first: It’s that we’ve been here before. We had the spike in July and people responded to it by using the safe practices such as distancing, etc., and that led to the opening of 100% of businesses in the state of Texas,” the governor said.

But Dallas County doesn’t want to wait until the 15% threshold kicks in.

“If we wait until we’re at 15%, and then we wait seven days after that to do something, it’s going to be far too late,” Jenkins said. “I’m talking regularly with my counterpart in El Paso, and we do not want to be where they are.”

Dallas County isn’t the only one calling for additional measures to deal with the virus.

“The numbers are still going up. They are going up certainly faster than we hoped they would be,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said.

Whitley said they might need to take more action to keep hospital beds open.

“I’ve always been a big supporter of local control. I think the governor has done some things that were very good, and I think he did them at opportune times, but we’re at a point now where I believe we need to allow, especially the urban counties where you have your larger populations, I think we need to give them the flexibility to do what they feel like is necessary to try to get a handle on the spread,” he said.

Though his biggest message is for people to take the simple step of wearing their masks right now, but Whitley would like additional power to enforce mask orders.

“If we had the ability to give a couple of citations, it’ll be the cities and it could be the sheriff’s department, but I think if folks felt like we’re serious about this, they’d say, ‘OK, we’re going to wear a mask,’” he said.

Doctors and local leaders are urging people to keep Thanksgiving celebrations to your household, not extended family.

And Whitley said he is even hoping churches consider going back to livestream only, with concern the increased holiday travel will lead to additional spread of the virus.

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