FORT WORTH, Texas – Tarrant County reported 820 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths on Monday, including the cases over the holiday weekend.
It is a continuation of a sudden surge in the county and public health officials reiterated that it is a dangerous trend.
“We have given enough education as people understand how this works. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. The numbers are going up. If people cannot follow that instruction, we will continue to see cases, ”said Dr. Vinny Taneja, Tarrant County Director of Public Health.
Currently, 555 people are hospitalized, a figure that represents 10 percent of beds across the county.
“It is not good news. Although we have capacity in hospitals, we do not want it to be filled with COVID. We want to leave that capacity for other diseases, “said Taneja.
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Dr. Rajesh Nandy of the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center is a primary source for analyzing the county’s covid-19 numbers. He notes a slight stabilization from the past few days.
“We still have a lot of new cases, in terms of new cases and hospitalizations. Now if that number stays stable we can still manage patients and treat them properly. The risk is if it continues to grow, ”said Nandy.
Nandy and Taneja say what will happen next in terms of the Tarrant County trend is based directly on the choices people make, which hopefully includes wearing a mask while in public and making social distance a priority. .
“The concern for us continues to be that the trend is on the rise. We don’t want the trend to increase, we want it to crush it, “said Taneja.
The most recent deaths include a 70-year-old woman from Arlington and an 80-year-old man from Fort Worth. Both had underlying health conditions.
Health officials said the numbers bring the total number of positive Tarrant County cases to 14,228 with 238 deaths. More than 6,000 have been recovered.
PLUS: Interactive Map of Texas Cases COVID-19
