Health officials in Tarrant County on Tuesday reported 437 new cases of COVID-19 and four more coronavirus-related deaths.
The fatalities included a Benbrook woman in her 60s, two Fort Worth women -- one in her 60s and one in her 80s -- and a Fort Worth man in his 70s. All four had underlying health conditions, according to Tarrant County Public Health.
Of the 437 cases added Tuesday, data from the county health department indicates there are 401 more confirmed cases than the day before and 36 more probable cases. It is not clear if any of the new cases came from the Texas DSHS backlog.
The county began to report 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 58,656 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,071 probable cases for a total of 64,727 cases.
The county is also reporting another 272 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 51,635. There are currently an estimated 12,369 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 528 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 10% of capacity and nearly twice what it was a month ago when it was at 5%.
With 723 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.
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.
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
