Collin and Denton counties reported a combined total of 1,190 new COVID-19 cases between Sept. 18-24: 479 in Denton County and 711 in Collin County.
In the same week, Collin County had 592 recoveries and Denton County 414 had recoveries.
The city of Frisco is no longer providing an online public health awareness dashboard tracking COVID-19 data in Frisco after a council decision Sept. 1 during a work session.
Collin County added a disclaimer to its COVID-19 dashboard Aug. 18 to say that the county lacks confidence in the data currently being provided by the state health department. The county revised the disclaimer Aug. 24 to acknowledge the DSHS is working to make data as accurate as possible.
County Judge Chris Hill said the DSHS was expected to set up a Collin County work group Aug. 25 that will be committed to rectifying the county’s backlog of cases. Hill said the work group will be checking whether patients currently classified as active cases of COVID-19 have been symptom-free for 10 days so they can be reclassified as recovered. If the group is unable to reach a patient after three attempts, they will be classified as recovered, he said.
On Sept. 24, the counties reported a combined total of 2,482 active COVID-19 cases: 1,535 in Denton County and 947 in Collin County. The combined total slightly decreased from that of the week prior, which was 2,502 combined cases as of Sept. 17. Data shows the 20-29 age group in Collin and Denton counties has had the highest number of total COVID-19 cases, but that age group is closely followed by those ages 30-39 and ages 40-49. ZIP code data from Collin County was unavailable as of Sept. 25.
Data shows five deaths in Collin County and two in Denton County in the past seven days. The total number of deaths since tracking began in March is 141 for Collin County and 109 for Denton County.
Among the key indicators being watched by experts is the number of hospitalizations. Collin County reported 95 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Sept. 24, and Denton County reported 44. In the last few weeks, that number has slightly increased in both Collin and Denton counties.
Collin County has a hospital bed capacity of 2,702. Denton County is reporting 266 available hospital beds out of 828, 34 available intensive care unit beds out of 107, and 233 available ventilators out of 314 as of Sept. 24. Statewide, the number of patients who have tested positive with COVID-19 and are currently hospitalized is 3,204 as of Sept. 24. That compares with 3,246 patients who were hospitalized and had COVID-19 on Sept. 17.
The rate of confirmed cases takes into account population differences. In Texas there were 24.39 confirmed cases per 1,000 people as of Sept. 24. Here are the rates per 1,000 people for the four North Texas counties as of Sept. 24. Other key indicators being watched by experts is the state’s positivity rate, which hit a record high in Texas on Aug. 11 with a rate of 24.5%. The rate is averaged over the previous seven days and calculates the ratio of positive new cases compared with the number of tests. Gov. Greg Abbott has previously said that a rate of 10% or more is cause for concern. On Sept. 23, the rate was 7.55%. Here is a look at the rate since early April.
