Tarrant County Public Health is reporting 655 additional cases of COVID-19 Thursday along with two more deaths.
Of the 655 additional cases reported Thursday, data from the county health department indicates there are 522 more confirmed cases than the day before and 133 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 52,634 confirmed cases of the virus and 4,804 probable cases for a total of 57,438 cases.
The latest deaths include a man from Arlington in his 90s and a woman from Fort Worth in her 60s. Both had underlying health conditions.
COVID-19 TRACKING u0026amp; TESTING
The county is also reporting another 334 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 47,780. There are currently an estimated 8,960 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 442 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 8% of capacity and nearly twice what it was a month ago at 5%.
With 698 deaths 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.
