Dallas County sees 2 ‘presumptive positive’ coronavirus cases, health officials say
A 77-year-old and a person in their 50s tested positive for coronavirus in Dallas County in the county’s first “presumptive positive” cases of the disease on Tuesday, the Dallas County Health and Human Services department said.
The older person is an out-of-state traveler with an extensive travel history and is being treated and isolated at a Dallas-area hospital, the department said. The other patient is a close contact of the first, it said.
Dallas County declined to release other information about the patients, including their location.
“While we know this case is concerning, it is not unexpected,” Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Philip Huang wrote in a press release. “We have been watching the numbers increase across the US and have been preparing for this event. We are working with all local, regional, & statewide health authorities to monitor the situation and update the public.”
On Tuesday, Collin County health officials confirmed three people in the same family tested positive for coronavirus in Frisco. A man in his 30s, his wife and their 3-year-old came back positive for the virus after being tested by the Dallas County Health and Human Services lab.
Tarrant County also reported its first presumptive positive case of the virus on Tuesday.
“Cases of COVID-19 in the ninth largest county and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the country were not unexpected,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins wrote in the statement that the Dallas health department released.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must run their own positive test on a person for a presumptive positive case to be confirmed.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Dallas County sees 2 ‘presumptive positive’ coronavirus cases, health officials say."
