Dallas County Reports Second COVID-19 Death

March 22, 2020March 22, 2020 Bethany Erickson 1 Comment

Dallas County health officials on Sunday reported a second COVID-19 death.

The county also reported 36 new cases, bringing the total number of cases of the novel coronavirus in the county to 131.

The latest death, the county said, is a man in his 80s with no high-risk, chronic health conditions. He had been critically ill in an area hospital.

“Over 40% of patients whom have required hospitalization are over 60 years of age,” the county’s Sunday report revealed.

“It is our policy in Dallas County not to release the names of person who have died from COVID-19. We leave that to the decisions of their families and loved ones. My thoughts and prayers are with this family and with all of the persons who have been suffering from COVID-19,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. “Dallas County will do everything in their power to #flattenthecurve and give you and your family their best chance to stay safe.”

As of 12 p.m. March 21, 816 COVID-19 tests in the county were reported since Mayor Eric Johnson issued the order that requires labs to report their tests to the city on March 13. Also, since that date, 652 tests were negative. Countywide, 95 were positive.

It was also revealed yesterday that a second Dallas police officer has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

A total of 315 COVID-19 tests were performed by five labs as of 5 p.m. Saturday, the city of Dallas said, with 27 positives. So far, Dallas County Health and Human Services has performed 230 tests, while private labs have performed 901. There are 1,451 pending tests.

“The number of positive cases has increased the last several days and we believe they’ll continue to increase as testing becomes more widely available in hospitals, county and private labs,” the city of Dallas report read.

The city also said that there have been 483 3-1-1 calls related to COVID-19 since March 13, and 40 were on Saturday. There have been 695 reports of community gathering violations since March 13, and 37 on Saturday.

We will update this story as soon as we have more details. To read more of our novel coronavirus coverage, click here.