Dallas County extends stay-at-home order while worry grows about its economic health
An order issued Friday by the Dallas County Commissioners Court has extended the county’s stay-at-home order until April 30.
An earlier Dallas “Stay Home Stay Safe” order, which went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on March 23 and was scheduled to expire April 3, instructed residents to avoid all nonessential outings and stay inside as much as possible.
There was some concern expressed by Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price about whether business owners and others could sustain themselves for the additional days. Price said entrepreneurs and others in his community are living hand-to-mouth and were dying on the vine because their businesses have been declared nonessential.
Commissioners said they were concerned about how the city could help people maintain their businesses and their households during the stay-at-home extension with little or no income.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said county officials were looking into ways where state and federal aid that was available could be expedited or whether alternatives to the services provided by businesses now closed could be provided to people in other ways.
To stop coronavirus spread, Jenkins said, the court needed to side with science to limit the movement of people as much as possible.
“We are working with the healthcare community and the business community to get to the best way to save as many lives as possible,” Jenkins said. “But the guiding star has to be to do as much as possible to allow our healthcare community to keep as many people alive as possible.”
A Fort Worth order, announced by Mayor Betsy Price on March 31, is set to expire on April 7, but Price said residents should expect that order to be extended through the end of April.
Tarrant County officials announced 58 new COVID-19 cases Friday for a total of 383, including 23 recovered patients.
There have been three coronavirus-related deaths in Fort Worth, two in Forest Hill and one each in Arlington and Hurst.
There are 127 active patients in Fort Worth and 61 in Arlington. Transmission type includes 56% from community spread, 43% travel-related and 2% of cases are pending investigation. At least 44% of the cases of community spread are from an unknown source.
Ages 45 to 64 make up 39% of the cases, 25 to 44 make up 36%, and 20% are 65 or older. Ages 15 to 24 make up 5% of cases.
Dallas County confirmed 90 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total to 921, including 17 deaths, across 22 cities.
More than 57% of the patients (533) are Dallas residents. Garland has the second-most cases with 69, and Irving has 56.
Among the total cases, 290 were hospitalized, 89 have been admitted to intensive care and 56 received mechanical ventilation. For the second consecutive week, the number of COVID-19 patients receiving ICU treatment exceeded the peak number of ICU patients from influenza during the 2019-20 season in the county.
More than 70% of patients requiring hospitalization have either been over 60 years old or had at least one known high-risk, chronic health condition. Almost 30% of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients has diabetes.
Five long-term care facilities combined for a total of 34 coronavirus patients, including three deaths.
This story includes information from the Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 4:18 PM.
