New coronavirus numbers for Tarrant county were announced Tuesday morning at the start of the meeting of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
Public health director Vinny Taneja reported 65 new cases, bringing the county total to 3,810. Five new deaths were reported, including two in Arlington and three in Fort Worth, bringing the county's total to 109.
He said the overall trend is still going up and there is no consistent decline in Tarrant County yet.
But he's also telling commissioners if you zoom in on certain aspects of the data, there are some silver linings. Reports of COVID-like illnesses are looking better over the last few days and there are no explosive numbers, but there are no indications yet of an overall downward trend.
So far, 809 recoveries have been reported.
Taneja said the website that Tarrant County launched to help connect residents to testing resources is seeing good traffic.
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However, he said test locations in the county are not filling all of their appointments and he wants people to know free tests are available to them. Whether you have insurance or not, tests for all individuals are covered under the CARES Act.
Commissioner Roy Brooks brought up a question about bringing wider testing to more people in the county in an effort to get more people back to work with peace of mind. He said he had received a call from a county employee who wanted all employees tested now that they are returning to work.
"In the phase of trying to reopen the economy and send people back to work, there's a lot of people out there like me, who don't feel real comfortable about that without having access to a test," he said. "It's time to change that dynamic and start testing people so they can feel good about going back to work."
But the public health director expressed some concern over just how feasible that could be.
Taneja said they're working on expansion but he's hesitant on opening it up to everyone -- symptomatic or not -- because it's a resource issue.
He said currently, about 95% of people who test are testing negative.
Also Tuesday, commissioners debated concerns of cases at local jails and the possibility of getting every staff member and guard at the county jail tested.
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
