The Tarrant County Public Health Department adds another 709 cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus Wednesday along with three more deaths, bringing the county's total number of confirmed and probable cases of the virus to more than 70,000.
Of the 709 additional cases reported Wednesday, data from the county health department indicates there are 577 more confirmed cases than the day before and 132 more probable cases. It is not clear if any of the new cases came from the Texas DSHS backlog.
The latest three deaths were all from Fort Worth. Further details were not immediately available.
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 63,030 confirmed cases of the virus and 7,198 probable cases for a total of 70,228 cases.
COVID-19 TRACKING u0026amp; TESTING
The county is also reporting another 582 estimated recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 54,981. There are currently an estimated 14,502 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 524 COVID-19 patients are currently occupying hospital beds in the county -- about 11% of capacity and nearly twice what it was a month ago when it was at 6%.
With 745 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.
