Coronavirus live updates April 3: Here’s what to know in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about coronavirus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Check back for updates.
Tarrant County Judge Whitley: New coronavirus order coming, will mirror Governor Abbott
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said Friday he expects to update his disaster order related to the novel coronavirus.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced a statewide edict that sparked confusion with local governments that had already enacted orders. Whitley said the updated Tarrant County order expected later Friday would not result in “major changes” but would clarify differences between local and state mandates.
Though details were not available late Friday morning, Whitley said his updated order would expand the definition of essential businesses. The new order will also remove mentions of grocery story price gouging. Whitley had wanted to avoid stores marking up necessary products, but the Attorney General’s office said it would handle enforcing price gouging.
Whitley said he and District Attorney Sharen Wilson had spent nearly two hours hashing out the local order with the Texas Attorney General’s office Thursday night.
It’s unclear if the new order will extend the county’s disaster declaration and stay-at-home order. Dallas County Friday extended its stay-at-home order through April 30.
Tarrant County confirms seventh coronavirus death, 58 new patients
A seventh Tarrant County resident has died from coronavirus-related issues, health officials confirmed.
No details were released besides the deceased being an adult Fort Worth resident.
“We express our deepest sympathy to the family, and this is a somber reminder for everyone that we are seeing a ramp up in disease activity in our community,” Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said in a release.
The county also announced 58 new COVID-19 cases Friday for a total of 383, including 23 recovered patients.
Dallas County adds 90 more coronavirus cases as total reaches 921
Dallas County confirmed 90 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total to 921, including 17 deaths, across 22 cities.
More than 57% of the patients (533) are Dallas residents. Garland has the second-most cases with 69, and Irving has 56.
Among the total cases, 290 were hospitalized, 89 have been admitted to intensive care and 56 received mechanical ventilation. For the second consecutive week, the number of COVID-19 patients receiving ICU treatment exceeded the peak number of ICU patients from influenza during the 2019-20 season in the county.
The county extended its stay-at-home order until April 30 on Friday morning.
Lewisville nursing home resident sixth coronavirus death in Denton County
A Lewisville nursing home resident in her 70s is the sixth confirmed coronavirus-related death in Denton County, officials reported Friday.
The woman had been hospitalized after locally contracting COVID-19. Nineteen new cases were reported to increase the total to 273. No new positive tests were reported at the Denton State Supported Living Center, where 73 residents and staff have been infected.
Is Fort Worth area ready for a surge of coronavirus patients? Details have been scarce.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley for the first time Thursday evening provided details about the county’s plans to handle a surge of COVID-19 patients that’s estimated to happen in May.
Whitley said county leaders have scouted locations for a pop-up hospital and have reached out to the congressional delegation to request more protective equipment for doctors and nurses. He said plans are in place to convert unused anesthesia machines into ventilators.
Still, most hospitals in the city have provided few details about their plans in response to questions from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Brandon Bennett, the commander of Fort Worth’s Joint Emergency Operations Center, said he’s frustrated with the level of data available to both him and the public.
“I don’t think they want to publicize a whole lot because they don’t want to create a panic,” he said. “Everything they’re doing, they’re doing with a focus of making sure they’re prepared and ready and a lot of that needs to be confidential.”
Asked this week about the hospital capacity, Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said he didn’t have that information handy. He referred questions to the hospitals, which declined to answer that question.
Bennett noted that Dallas County’s Health Department has been more transparent than the Tarrant County Health Department. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has been open since Monday about how the county will operate a pop-up hospital at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott and has routinely discussed hospital capacity and the percentage of patients who have been hospitalized.
Goodfellow Fund has stepped in to help Fort Worth area children who are missing meals
The Goodfellow Fund charity is seeking donations, but this time it’s not for Christmas clothes for kids.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the fund is switching its focus from clothes to food for the first time in its more than 100 years of existence.
“We realized there was really a need for that here in Tarrant County,” said Richard Greene, executive director of the fund.
A lot of children in Tarrant County rely on school meals each day, Greene said, but with the coronavirus outbreak closing schools, many kids are going without. Schools across the county have set up options for parents and students to get meals, but Greene said he thinks the people of the county can do even more.
Greene believes the Goodfellow Fund can leverage its name recognition to help spread awareness of the need for meals. The fund also gives people a place to put their money to work, even if they don’t have much to give amid the layoffs and reduced hours.
The money raised will go directly to the Child Nutrition Program, run by the Fort Worth school district and Tarrant Area Foodbank.
Send donations to Goodfellows, Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101. Or visit goodfellowfundfw.com to make a secure credit card donation.
Some employees who have to take off because of the coronavirus can get sick leave pay
A pot of money held by the federal government became available Wednesday for people who do not have sick leave benefits but need to take off from work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on March 18 requiring employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide their workers hit by the pandemic with a certain amount of paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave.
“It was just assumed that employers of more than 500 people provide paid sick leave, which is not true,” said Drew Herrmann, a Fort Worth employment lawyer.
Herrmann said he has no indication that many employees are aware that these benefits are available. The federal benefit becomes available on the heels of municipal sick leave pay ordinances in Austin and San Antonio being declared unconstitutional in the state courts and a federal judge blocking a municipal ordinance in Dallas that would have provided workers with paid sick leave.
Both full- and part-time employees are eligible for the federal benefit, according to U.S. Department of Labor documents.
TCU reports 2nd coronavirus case as student tests positive
A TCU student has tested positive for coronavirus, the school announced late Thursday night.
The school said it learned on Wednesday that a student living in a TCU apartment had contracted the virus.
It’s the second known individual tied to the school’s campus to test positive for COVID-19. A construction worker who has been working on the east-side expansion project at the football stadium also tested positive.
TCU said the student is “doing well, has been symptom-free for seven days and is beyond the 14-day, self-quarantine period.”
The school will notify social and residential groups with whom this student has interacted in the last two to three weeks, to the extent possible.
A man in his 60s is first coronavirus-related death in Hood County
A man in his 60s with preexisting health issues is the first confirmed coronavirus-related death in Hood County.
The man died on Thursday, health officials report.
There have been eight confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county, including one patient who has recovered. Seventy-nine people have tested negative and 55 tests are pending results.
James Taylor postpones tour, Dickies Arena stop
Iconic singer James Taylor postponed his United States tour, which included a May 18 stop at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, because of coronavirus.
Taylor, who was scheduled to be in Fort Worth with Jackson Browne, promised they would reschedule the tour.
“As this summer’s tour of 27 towns and cities across the US drew near, we’ve been increasingly excited to hit the road again,” Taylor and Browne said in a statement released Friday. “So it’s deeply disappointing for both of us to have to call it off and reschedule (and reschedule we WILL)! As we all now realize, COVID-19 is a serious , real and present danger.”
The rescheduling of all dates, which could be late summer, all depends on the advice of health officials.
Previously purchased tickets will be honored for all new dates and fans are encouraged to hold onto their tickets.
Fort Worth ISD students will receive pass/fail grades due to coronavirus closure
Fort Worth public school students will receive a pass or fail grade for the rest of the school year and class ranks will be based on grades received during the first semester, officials announced Thursday afternoon.
Students will receive at least one assignment a week, according to the district’s statement.
Fort Worth schools have been closed since March 7, first for Spring Break and then in response to the novel coronavirus.
Fort Worth school officials said teachers will begin to “monitor student progress” on April 6 to assign passing or failing grades.
The school district said:
▪ Students in first through eighth grades will be promoted based on their average grade of the first through fourth grading periods.
▪ High school students will receive credit for the second semester for each class if they have a passing grade.
▪ Report cards for the fifth grading cycle will be posted to Focus on April 22.
▪ GPAs and class rank for high school students won’t include grades from the second semester this year.
▪ Valedictorians, salutatorians and local honors for graduating seniors will be based on class ranks and GPAs from the first semester.
▪ The school district hasn’t made any decisions about graduation ceremonies.
Texas school districts, campuses won’t receive letter grades this year, TEA says
The Texas Education Agency announced Thursday that all Texas school districts and campuses will forgo school accountability grades this year due to school closures brought on by the novel coronavirus’ spread.
Instead, districts and campuses will receive a special “Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster” rating for the 2020 year.
“While we continuously work to ensure our ‘A-F’ Accountability System paints an accurate picture of school performance, these unprecedented circumstances have forced all of us to change and adapt,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement Thursday. “Given we won’t have underlying information to assess performance, we won’t be assigning accountability letter grades for the 2019-20 school year.”
The decision follows the agency’s approval from the U.S. Department of Education on Monday to waive statewide testing and accountability requirements under the federal acts that require them.
Task force of doctors being built in Fort Worth to help with possible coronavirus surge
A task force of physicians who can help during a possible surge of COVID-19 patients is being created by the Tarrant County Medical Society.
The task force will help care for patients who need to see a doctor for reasons other than COVID-19.
“As COVID-19 continues to spread, we anticipate a surge in new patients, particularly those who may have cold or flu symptoms but are not critical,” a notice from the society said. “We are creating this Task Force of physicians to be ready for deployment in the event of this surge. Contact us if you are interested in volunteering to assist with triage and low acuity ‘walking well’ patients at our local hospitals.”
This would leave doctors already in hospitals available to care for coronavirus patients exclusively.
Coronavirus means Texas could see unemployment claims for 1 month equal its 2019 total
More than half a million Texans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past 18 days since the novel coronavirus began spreading through the state, prompting officials to shut down nonessential businesses.
“If we continue at this pace, we are on track to help the same number of Texans that filed for all of 2019 in just a little over a month’s time, which is over 700,000 claims,” said Cisco Gamez, a spokesman for the Texas Workforce Commission, which oversees unemployment benefits.
So many Texans have been trying to apply for unemployment benefits that they’ve overwhelmed the state’s system.
Anyone who hasn’t been able to file a claim should keep trying.
Some tips:
▪ Apply for benefits, or check the status of claims, at any time online at ui.texasworkforce.org.
▪ The workforce commission is waiving work search requirements for unemployment applicants as well as the waiting period for people who file for unemployment because of coronavirus. It generally takes about 21 days for a person to receive a check from when they apply and qualify for benefits.
▪ The best time to apply online, when the fewest people are trying to access the website, is between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.
▪ You also can apply for benefits by phone. The 800-939-6631 number is available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
Tarrant County coronavirus deaths double to 6, including a second in Fort Worth
Three more Tarrant County residents have died from the coronavirus, county health officials confirmed Thursday.
Two Forest Hill residents and a Fort Worth resident who died were elderly with underlying health conditions, county health officials said Thursday. Their names and ages have not been released.
There have been a total of six COVID-19-related deaths in Tarrant County, including two announced Wednesday in Fort Worth and Hurst.
A 77-year-old man who lived in an Arlington retirement home was Tarrant County’s first reported death on March 17.
Tarrant County adds 37 new coronavirus cases for total of 325, including 23 recovered
Tarrant County added 37 coronavirus cases Thursday for a total of 325, including 115 in Fort Worth.
The 325 total COVID-19 cases include six deaths and 23 patients who have recovered.
The majority of Tarrant County positive tests are in patients aged between 25 and 64, including 38% between 25 and 44, and 37% between 45 and 64. About 5 percent of the patients are between 15 and 24, and 20% of the patients are 65 or older.
On Wednesday, the county started reporting more detailed information including a breakdown of cases by age, gender and hospitalization status on its website.
About 36% of patients are now or at one time have been hospitalized.
The majority of Tarrant patients contracted COVID-19 through community spread, including 43% from an unknown source.
For second consecutive day, Dallas County sees 100 new coronavirus cases, 2 deaths
For the second consecutive day Dallas County confirmed two more coronavirus deaths and 100 more cases Thursday to surpass 800 total cases.
The 16th and 17th deaths are a woman in her 70s who was a resident of a long-term care facility and a Dallas woman in her 80s. Both had been critically ill in area hospitals.
More than 77% of the 831 total COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization have either been 60 or older or had at least one known high-risk, chronic health condition.
Collin County adds 24 new coronavirus cases for 207 total, including 66 recoveries
Collin County confirmed 24 new coronavirus cases Thursday for a total of 207, including 66 patients who have recovered.
Plano has 73 confirmed cases, including 25 patients who have recovered.
Denton County reports 5th coronavirus death; 70% of its cases are locally transmitted
Denton County confirmed its fifth coronavirus-related death and 23 new cases Thursday.
A Carrollton man in his 70s who was hospitalized died after locally contracting COVID-19.
“We hope everyone will take a moment to keep our fellow residents affected by this pandemic in your thoughts and prayers,” Denton County Judge Andy Eads said in a release. “The seriousness of taking precautions cannot be overstated. With community spread endemic in our county, we must take the necessary steps to ensure we do not contribute to the problem.”
The county has 254 confirmed cases, including 57 recoveries. Among the new patients are two Denton State Supported Living Center employees. Twenty-five staff members and 50 residents of the living center have tested positive for COVID-19.
Worker finishing construction on TCU’s football stadium tests positive for coronavirus
A construction contractor working on the east-side expansion at Amon G. Carter Stadium has tested positive for coronavirus, TCU announced on Wednesday.
It’s the first reported case of COVID-19 on the Fort Worth campus that has been holding online-only classes for the last two weeks.
The school said the individual, who is employed by Turner Construction, is doing well, receiving care and recovering at home. The person last worked on campus March 24, and spent most of their shift outside.
The area was cleared of personnel and sanitized per public health guidance. The school said construction crews have been following social distancing protocols, but two workers who were in closest contact with the COVID-19 positive individual are currently in a 14-day quarantine and self-monitoring period.
Neither of the workers are currently showing symptoms, the school said.
Wise County confirms first three coronavirus cases near Decatur, Rhome and Greenwood
Wise County has confirmed three coronavirus cases near Rhome, Decatur and Greenwood.
All three patients are in home isolation.
Burleson adds three more coronavirus cases to increase Johnson County total to 17
Johnson County confirmed four more coronavirus cases Thursday, including three more in Burleson.
The county has a total of 17 confirmed COVID-19 patients, including 10 in Burleson, two in Cleburne, one in Mansfield and four in unincorporated Johnson County. Six of the patients are divided among three households.
Could Fort Worth host a coronavirus field hospital? Maybe
Federal officials visited Fort Worth over the weekend to scout a possible field hospital location in preparation for novel coronavirus patients overwhelming hospitals, a senior Fort Worth official said, though military officials Thursday said Dallas is the top priority for the facility.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas will open as a temporary medical center. The center would have 250 beds and the capacity to expand to as many as 1,400.
During the press conference, officials alluded to the possibility of other Dallas-Fort Worth field pop-up hospitals.
Brandon Bennett, director of Fort Worth’s joint Emergency Operations Center, said officials looked at locations Fort Worth over the weekend. The city was not directly involved in the scouting, Bennett said, but he expected to be notified if a Fort Worth location is chosen.
TCU says standardized tests ‘optional’ for high school juniors applying in fall 2021
TCU is joining a number of universities that is making standardized testing requirements optional for the high school class of 2021.
ACT and SAT spring test dates have been canceled across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. That prompted TCU to go to a “test-optional” format.
“We understand the uncertainties high school juniors are currently facing,” said Heath Einstein, TCU’s dean of admission, in a news release. “TCU wants to do what we can to reduce some of the anxiety, so that students may focus on their safety and successfully shift to a new educational modality.
“TCU has never relied solely on one factor in admission decisions, and that will be reinforced while we are suspending the testing requirement.”
Secretary of State says local officials must delay May 2 elections for voters’ health
The Texas Secretary of State’s Office instructed local officials Thursday to immediately push back their May 2 elections if they had not already done so to prevent risking the health and safety of voters due to the novel coronavirus’ spread.
“If you don’t move your May 2nd election, you are subjecting voters to health risks and potential criminal violations,” Keith Ingram the director of the office’s Elections Division wrote in an email Thursday to local election officials. “Failure to postpone your election will put your election at severe risk for an election contest.”
Following concerns with Texans flocking to the polls amid the coronavirus’ spread, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation last month allowing local officials to postpone their May 2 elections to Nov. 3. However, the decision was ultimately up to local officials and at the time Abbott urged them to do so.
On Tuesday, Abbott issued an executive order that extended school closures until May 4 and requires Texans to stay home through April unless participating in activities or services deemed essential by the state.
Gas prices are cheap in Fort Worth, for those of us who actually have somewhere to go
Fort Worth-area residents who are stuck at home because of the coronavirus may be surprised by the price of gasoline next time they fill up.
A gallon of regular unleaded gas can be had for as little as $1.19 a gallon. That was the price for Lisa’s Fuel Stop at 24th Street and Ephriham Avenue in north Fort Worth, according to the crowd-sourced website Gas Buddy.
Many other stations in the Fort Worth and Arlington areas were selling gas for $1.29 to $1.37.
“Until crude oil prices and gasoline demand increase, cheaper gas prices are likely here for the foreseeable future,” AAA Texas spokesman Daniel Armbruster said in an email. “Today, motorists can find gas for $1.99 or less at 68% of gas stations across the country. AAA expects gas prices to keep dropping as cheap crude combines with the realities of people staying home and less demand for gas.”
Statewide, the average price in Texas is $1.70 for a gallon, AAA says. That’s 10 cents cheaper than the average price last week, and 72 cents per gallon less than the same time a year ago.
Fort Worth’s average price is $1.57 a gallon. The cheapest average price is $1.32 in Sherman/Denison, and the highest cost is $1.94 in Midland.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.