EL PASO, Texas – Public health officials reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths in El Paso on Thursday morning.
She announced that the virus had killed another 20 people, the highest increase of one day reported in El Paso County.
The previous record was 15 new deaths reported on July 23rd.
A total of 330 people have now died at Covid-19 in El Paso.
All new victims had underlying health conditions. They include:
Local officials have said several times that the deaths they report do not normally happen on the same day. This time they said that these people died between the third week of July and the first week of August. They have explained that it takes time to confirm that someone has died from the virus.
Officials said deaths are being reported at the same time because they are receiving death information at about the same time.
Thursday’s record came the same day as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is scheduled to come to El Paso. He will investigate the impact that the pandemic has on the city. The governor and local officials are set to hold a news conference at 2 a.m. ABC-7 will bring it to you live on air and here on kvia.com.
Officials also reported 168 new cases. That means El Paso now has a total of 17,378 confirmed cases.
They said another 331 people had been recovered, so there have been 12,882 recoveries – although experts say recovered individuals may have long-term health effects from having the virus.
That leaves El Paso with 4,166 known active cases.
Hospitalizations due to the virus increased to 194. Officials said 69 of those patients are in the ICU and 37 on ventilators.
The number of people in the hospital has been steadily declining over the past three weeks, as you can see in the image below:
