Officials reported Wednesday the first death due to COVID-19 in Lamar County, a resident of Paris Healthcare Center, where there are 48 positive cases of the new coronavirus.
Residents of the nursing home who tested positive have been separated from those who did not test positive, epidemiologist Mark Lueke of the Paris-Lamar County Health District told NBC 5 Monday.
Most surprising, Lueke said, were that the majority of the people who tested positive were asymptomatic and showed no signs of fever or respiratory symptoms. He urged residents in Lamar County to practice social distancing and to wear masks in public to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.
Paris Mayor Steve Clifford said city leaders have pushed for more widespread testing in Lamar County.
There are 13 other cases of COVID-19 in Lamar County, raising the countywide total to 61, according to the Paris-Lamar County Health District.
Seven of the cases are travel-related and 54 are community spread, officials said.
Six people in the county have recovered from COVID-19.
Tracking COVID-19 Cases in North Texas Counties
NBC 5 is tracking the number of COVID-19 related cases, recoveries and deaths in North Texas counties. Choose a county and click on a city or town to see how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting your area.
Cases are cumulative by day and are subject to change, dependent on each county health department's reporting schedule and methodology. Data may be reported county-wide, by city or town, or not at all. Cases, recoveries and death counts in 'unspecified' categories are used as placeholders and reassigned by their respective counties at a later date.
Data: County Health Departments, NBC 5 Staff
Nina Lin/NBC
