Tarrant County Public Health confirmed 1,536 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday along with another 15 new deaths.
The report released Wednesday afternoon by the county's health department shows a surge from 860 COVID-19 cases reported the previous day.
In the last seven days, the county has announced 10,480 new cases of the virus. Of the 1,536 additional cases reported Tuesday, data from the county health department indicates there are 1,240 more confirmed cases than the most recent report and 296 more probable cases.
Tarrant County, which extended its mask mandate until Feb. 28, 2021, last month, began reporting both probable and confirmed cases of COVID-19 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 100,887 confirmed cases of the virus and 13,374 probable cases for a total of 114,261 cases.
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The county is also reporting another 1,530 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 81,507. There are currently an estimated 31,841 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 36%.
The health department reports 890 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county on Wednesday. TCPH data shows 311 of 724 available ventilators in use, it's not clear how many are in use by COVID-19 patients.
With 913 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.
COVID-19 causes a respiratory illness with cough, fever and shortness of breath and may lead to bronchitis, severe pneumonia or even death. For more information go to coronavirus.tarrantcounty.com or call the Tarrant County Public Health information line, 817-248-6299, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
