The Tarrant County Public Health Department confirms 5,991 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, along with an additional 18 new deaths. Through Sunday, TCPH also reports that nearly 1,200 people in the district have been hospitalized with the virus and that the ICU occupancy rate is 96%.
In the past seven days, the province has announced 11,410 new cases of the virus, or 1,375 on average per day. The county’s health department has not reported any data on the COVID-19 case from Dec. 24-26. Of the 5,991 additional cases reported Monday, data from the county’s health department indicates that there are 5,441 more confirmed cases than the most recent report and 550 more probable cases.
The last 18 victims were people in Arlington, Bedford, Fort Worth, Haltom City, Hurst and Richland Hills. Further details are not yet available.
Tarrant County, which last month extended its mask mandate to February 28, 2021, began reporting both probable and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in August at the request of the state health service. Likely cases, the county said, are responsible for a variety of real-world situations and can reveal cases in the community that would otherwise go unreported. To date, the province has reported 125,947 confirmed cases of the virus and 18,054 probable cases out of a total of 144,001 cases.
The health department reported through Sunday that 1,175 COVID-19 patients were occupying hospital beds in the county, which account for nearly 26% of the county’s capacity. TCPH reported that 82% of the beds are occupied in the province and 96% of the IC beds in the province.
The province also reports an additional 4,420 estimated recoveries, bringing the total survivors to 105,531. There are currently an estimated 37,045 active cases in the county, the bulk of all North Texas counties.
With 1,425 deaths now attributed to the virus, COVID-19 is now expected to be the third biggest killer of Tarrant County residents after cancer and heart disease and is expected to surpass the annual total for stroke later this year.
COVID-19 causes a respiratory disease with cough, fever and shortness of breath and can lead to bronchitis, severe pneumonia, or even death. For more information go to coronavirus.tarrantcounty.com or call the Tarrant County Public Health information line, 817-248-6299, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.