Tarrant County Reports 384 COVID-19 Cases Wednesday Along With 5 More Deaths

Tarrant County Public Health is reporting 384 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday with five new deaths in Fort Worth and Bedford.

Of the 384 additional cases reported Wednesday, 322 are confirmed while the other 62 are probable cases. The county has not said whether any of the 322 confirmed cases are from the Department of State Health Services backlog.

The county reported five deaths Wednesday, including a woman from Bedford in her 90s, a man from Fort Worth in his 80s, a man from Fort Worth in his 60s,  and a man and woman from Fort Worth in their 50s. All had underlying health conditions.

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 44,590 confirmed cases of the virus and 3,327 probable cases for a total of 47,917 cases.

The county is also reporting another 319 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 41,788. There are currently an estimated 5,488 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 254 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 7% of capacity. A month ago, on Aug. 22 COVID-19 patients occupied about 9% 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.