Dallas County reports 134 new COVID-19 cases, 5 new deaths from the virus
DALLAS - For the second straight day, Dallas County reported its largest one-day number of COVID-19 cases.
Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 134 new cases on Saturday, along with five more deaths.
This brings the county’s total number of cases to 2,324.
The five new deaths on Saturday brings the county's number of COVID-19 deaths this week to 33.
This has been the deadliest week so far for the coronavirus in Dallas County, and has brought the county's total number of deaths to 60.
The five new deaths were a Grand Prairie man in his 80s, a University Park woman in her 90s, two men in their 70s who lived in long-term care facilities in Dallas, and a woman in her 70s who live in a long-term care facility.
Health officials did not say if they lived in the same long-term care facility.
Dr. Phil Huang with Dallas County Health and Human Services said we are not at our peak yet, but it's coming soon.
He said the five new deaths represent people who were infected a week or two ago, adding that with more testing, the numbers will continue to rise.
He wants everyone to continue to stay home when they can, and when they go out, wear a face covering, but it does not have to be a mask.
Dr. Huang said things will get worse before it gets better.
“This certainly shows this is not over, we've seen some positive indicators, but this is the largest case number that we reported in a single day, and yesterday was then the largest number we had then. We are still not out of the woods and we need to keep doing what we are doing,” he said. “To move forward and start opening things up, that is one thing that has to be in place, having adequate testing capacity so we can get a real handle on everything that is going on.”
Dr. Huang said the face coverings are because more people are asymptomatic, and it's to prevent those who may have the virus but don’t know from spreading it.
He went on to say he recognizes people want things to go back to normal quickly, but said all of these measures are in place to prevent a bounce back of COVID-19 in a few months.
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Tarrant County Public Health also reported three more deaths related to COVID-19 on Saturday: a Mansfield woman in her 70s, a Fort Worth woman in her 60s, and a Keller woman in her 70s.
Two of the women had underlying health conditions.
That bring's the county's total number of deaths from the coronavirus to 38.
The county also reported 54 new cases, bringing their total to 1,229.
Collin County reported a new COVID-19 death, bringing their total to 13 deaths.