The Tarrant County Public Health Department confirms another 1,525 cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus Monday along with no new deaths, bringing the county's total number of confirmed and probable cases of the virus to more than 75,000.
The county health department confirmed to NBC 5 Monday that the cases were not part of a backlog -- making it the single-largest batch of new cases reported since the pandemic began that were current infections and not part of lag in reporting.
Of the 1,525 additional cases reported Monday, data from the county health department indicates there are 1,415 more confirmed cases than the day before and 110 more probable cases.
In a statement, the Tarrant County Health Department cited recent cold weather that drove people indoors, along with poor adherence to social distancing and a lack of mask wearing as likely contributing factors to the spike.
“You wear the mask in the house, don’t just assume that because they are close family or close friends that they aren’t putting you at risk," said Dr. Beth Kassanoff.
Dr. Kassanoff said healthcare providers are seeing a growing number of cases attributable to small social gatherings and urged people to wear a mask, even around family and friends.
“We have to assume that everybody around us has it or we have it and we could give it to everybody else," said Kassanoff.
Tarrant 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 67,192 confirmed cases of the virus and 7,969 probable cases for a total of 75,161 cases.
COVID-19 TRACKING u0026amp; TESTING
The county is also reporting another 611 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 57,914. There are currently an estimated 16,484 active cases in the county, the most of any North Texas 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 566 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 10% of capacity.
With 763 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.
