The city of Fort Worth topped 30,000 COVID-19 cases Thursday as the Tarrant County Public Health Department adds another 742 cases of the virus along with six more deaths.
The six latest victims announced Thursday include a man from Mansfield in his 90s, a woman from Fort Worth in her 90s, two women from Fort Worth in their 60s, a woman from North Richland Hills in her 50s and a woman from Fort Worth in her 40s. All had underlying health conditions.
Of the 742 additional cases reported Thursday, data from the county health department indicates there are 483 more confirmed cases than the day before and 259 more probable cases. It is not clear if any of the new cases came from the Texas DSHS backlog.
The county began reporting both probable and confirmed cases in August at the request of the state health department. Probable cases, the county said, account for a variety of real-world situations and could highlight cases in the community that may otherwise go unreported. To date, the county has reported 59,672 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,438 probable cases for a total of 66,110 cases.
The latest influx of cases sent Fort Worth over the 30,000 case mark. The suburbs are continuing to see increases as well. Arlington, with 11,553 cases since March, has added more than 400 new cases since Monday. Hurst climbed about 1,000 cases this week, Keller is very close to that mark and both Mansfield and North Richland Hills topped 1,600 cases each.
COVID-19 TRACKING u0026amp; TESTING
The county is also reporting another 474 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 52,544. There are currently an estimated 12,832 active cases in the county.
Of the county's cases, 71% of those who have died were over the age of 65 even though they only make up 10% of the cases. Those aged 25 to 44 make up the largest percentage of people with COVID-19 at 37%.
The health department reports 528 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 10% of capacity and nearly twice what it was a month ago when it was at 6%.
With 734 deaths now attributed to the virus, COVID-19 is now projected to be the third leading killer of Tarrant County residents behind cancer and heart disease and is expected to surpass the annual total for stroke later this year.
With the recent changes to their reporting system, Tarrant County Public Health said changes have also been made to their online dashboard, most notably to the Case Counts tab and Cases by Location tab. The Case Counts tab now includes cases reported by week, including both probable and confirmed, while the Cases by Location tab includes a map showing the 30-day average infection rate by ZIP code.
