Covid-19 has been compared to the flu, so Dallas County Health and Human Services released figures that compared the two viral illnesses. Covid-19 is many times more severe.
Since Sept. 8, 2019, there have been 1,990 people hospitalized with the flu. Of those, there have been 25 deaths in 14 Dallas County hospitals or influenza listed as cause of death on Dallas County death certificates.
The first Covid-19 hospitalizations took place the week of March 14. Since then, 796 people have been admitted to Dallas County hospitals with the virus. Of those, 94 have died.
So 94 deaths from Covid-19 in a little more than one month compared to 25 influenza deaths in about nine months.
As for Covid-19 being a seasonal illness going away on the same schedule as flu, the last ICU hospital admissions for flu were the week of March 14. That was a week after the first ICU admissions for Covid-19 in Dallas County. If coronavirus were seasonal like the flu, it would have been petering out at the time it was just taking off locally.
County distribution of Covid-19
Each of the 26 cities in Dallas County have had cases of Covid-19. The most have been in the city of Dallas. Hutchins and the portion of Wylie that lies in Dallas County have each had only had 1 case. Other single-digit cities are Cockrell Hill–5; Sachse–9; Seagoville–6; Sunnyvale–8; and Wilmer–2. The suburbs with the most cases are Garland–324; Irving–266; and Mesquite–135. They’re also the three of the four largest cities in Dallas County after Dallas. The other, Grand Prairie, has had 99 cases confirmed.
Today’s report
Dallas County reported 5 new deaths on Tuesday, April 21, bringing the total to 99 deaths in Dallas County.
— David Taffet
