The number of people in Tarrant County who have died after testing positive for COVID-19 eclipsed 600 on Saturday, as the county reported 11 more deaths and 155 new, confirmed cases of the coronavirus, health officials say.
In addition to 155 confirmed cases reported Saturday, Tarrant County Public Health reported 48 probable cases. The county has not said whether any of the 155 confirmed cases are from the Department of State Health Services 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 41,273 confirmed cases of the virus and 2,867 probable cases for a total of 44,140 cases.
Of the fatalities reported Saturday, four were in Fort Worth, two were in Arlington and there was one each in Arlington, Bedford, Grapevine, Mansfield, Southlake and White Settlement.
The county is also reporting another 229 new estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 38,998. There are currently an estimated 4,550 active cases in the county.
Of the county's cases, 72% of those who have died were over the age of 65. Those aged 25 to 44 make up the largest percentage of people with COVID-19 at 37%.
The health department reports 222 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 4% of capacity. A month ago, on Aug. 12 COVID-19 patients occupied about 8% of Tarrant County hospital beds.
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.
