Tarrant County Public Health is reporting 197 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 Friday with five more deaths. Meanwhile, the county's 7-day and 14-day averages continue to decline.
The latest victims of the pandemic include a woman from Fort Worth in her 80s, a man from Fort Worth in his 70s, a woman from Benbrook in her 70s, a man from Fort Worth in his 60s, and a man from Bedford in his 50s. All had underlying health conditions.
Of the 275 additional cases reported Friday, data from the county health department indicates 197 cases are confirmed while 78 cases are probable.
The county began reporting both probable and confirmed cases earlier this month 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 37,407 confirmed cases of the virus and 1,921 probable cases for a total of 39,328 cases.
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The county's 7-day average of cases, including both confirmed and probable, dropped for the third straight day to an average of 528 cases per day; the 14-day average dropped for the fifth straight day to 481 cases per day. The averages for both had been trending down last week before a backlog of cases in recent days.
The county is also reporting nearly 200 new estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 32,316. There are currently an estimated 6,529 active cases in the county.
Of the county's cases, 70% 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 38%.
The health department reports 354 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 7% of capacity. A month ago, on July 21, COVID-19 patients occupied about 12% 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.
