Tarrant County Public Health is reporting 641 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday with five new deaths.
The five latest victims of the virus include two women from Fort Worth in their 70s, two men from Fort Worth in their 60s and a man from Fort Worth in his 50s. All had underlying health conditions.
Of the 641 additional cases reported Wednesday, data from the county health department indicates there are 533 more confirmed cases than the day before and 108 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 59,189 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,179 probable cases for a total of 65,368 cases.
COVID-19 TRACKING u0026amp; TESTING
The county is also reporting another 435 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 52,070. There are currently an estimated 12,570 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 535 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 11% of capacity and more than twice what it was a month ago when it was at 5%.
With 728 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.
