We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about the coronavirus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Check back for updates.

Tarrant County reports 115 new coronavirus cases, 2 more deaths

Tarrant County officials confirmed 115 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths Saturday while warning community spread of the virus continues to be substantial, even as some restrictions are being lifted.

There have been a total 2,503 coronavirus cases and 71 deaths, according to the county public health department.

The two residents whose deaths were reported Saturday included a man in his 60s from Fort Worth and a man in his 50s from Keller, officials said in a news release. Both had underlying health conditions.

“Our condolences go out to the families,” Tarrant County Health Director Vinny Taneja said in the release.

Taneja also encouraged residents to heed guidelines about staying home as much as possible and social distancing as stay-at-home requirements are expiring.

The 115 cases announced Saturday follow 142 new cases Friday, which represented the second-highest single-day high, and 97 cases Thursday.

The county also announced seven more deaths Thursday, a single-day high. All of the individuals who died were Fort Worth residents.

There were 230 confirmed COVID-19-occupied beds in hospitals on Saturday, according to the public health department. There were also 2,412 available beds and 463 available ventilators.

Across the county, 583 residents have recovered from the coronavirus, according to the department of health.

After slew of new coronavirus cases, Dallas judge warns increased activity stifles decline

Dallas County reported four more coronavirus deaths and the second-most single-day new cases of the pandemic on Saturday.

The four deaths included an Irving man in his 20s, male residents of Richardson and Grand Prairie in their 70s, and a male resident of a long-term care facility in Mesquite.

The county reported 181 new COVID-19 cases, six fewer than Friday’s record high for a total of 3,899 and 110 deaths, including 29 this week.

The daily average new cases increased to 141 this week from 84 a week ago. The county had a 38% increase in pandemic-related deaths from last week but lost four fewer people than two weeks ago, according to health officials.

“All this points to the need to follow @CDCgov and local health department recommendations and avoid crowds, keep 6-foot distancing at all times and wear a cloth face covering when visiting businesses, using public transportation, or with individuals outside your household,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a release.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered that businesses in the state could start to reopen at limited capacity on Friday.

“Before the governor’s order opening more businesses, medical models had targeted the next few days as our peak with declines expected in mid-May,” Jenkins said. “Increased activity makes this harder to achieve but it’s still possible if we all make smart decisions and follow the advice of the scientists that have spent their adult lives preparing for this moment.”

Restaurants in Arlington are opening back up, but most people aren’t lining up to get in

Restaurants across Texas reopened Friday night. But for most Arlington restaurants, getting customers to return hasn’t been as simple as flipping on the neon open sign.

In Arlington Highlands, one of the newer shopping and dining centers in the city, only a handful of restaurants actually went through the process of bringing employees back to work and opening their tables to the public.

Even fewer have seen lines of people waiting to get in with the 25% capacity rule in place.

Saturday afternoon, when the restaurants at Arlington Highlands are usually flush with diners, Pluckers was the only restaurant with a line of people waiting to get in the door.

Dog Haus Biergarten, a drafthouse specializing in hot dogs and brats, had three tables occupied around 2 p.m. on Saturday. General Manager Carson Fair said Friday night, lines at the door only got to about four groups at any given time.

For some guests, like Bill and LuAnn McCaddon, going out means bringing your own disinfectant wipes. The couple sat on the patio of Dog Haus, drinking sodas and eating hot dogs with a value sized container of Clorox wipes serving as a centerpiece.

As online graduation plan is criticized, Fort Worth schools chief says ‘no’ to alternatives

Lisa Muttiah was looking forward to watching her triplets, seniors at the Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences, graduate later this month at Will Rogers Auditorium.

They are among 91 final-year students at one of the Fort Worth Independent School District’s smaller specialized campuses, and thousands of other seniors elsewhere, yearning to participate in a central ritual of the teenage experience.

“This is a life passage for students,” she said. “They live to graduate.”

Last week, the district said that graduations would be held online and would join canceled proms and classrooms that have been dark since spring break as elements of school life that have been colored by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The district is too large a system to adopt the graduation alternatives that other districts have, Superintendent Kent Scribner said Friday, as criticism of his plan to shelve in-person ceremonies intensified.

With about 20 graduations and 5,000 seniors expected to take part in the ritual as coronavirus pandemic concerns persist, holding a commencement at a drive-in theater, for example, is impractical, Scribner said.

Scribner, the FWISD superintendent, spoke from his desk in a video in which he addressed members of the senior class. Scribner said the district had made its announcement with “profound disappointment.”

Many students and their parents condemned the plan to hold graduations online after the district announced that plan on Wednesday. About 715 comments were left on the district’s Facebook posting on the graduation decision.

In a step not described in the original announcement, Scribner said that if gathering restrictions are relaxed, it is possible he will consider options for a graduation celebration later this summer.

Brewer High School is the latest to shift its graduation to Texas Motor Speedway

White Settlement Brewer is the latest high school to have its 2020 graduation ceremony at Texas Motor Speedway, the district announced on Saturday.

Previously rescheduled for July 16 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Brewer will now have its graduation at 2 p.m. on May 29.

“This provides a venue that ensures social distancing and enables all of our graduates to participate in the ceremony,” said district superintendent Frank Molinar in a press release. “Several students have plans to join the military or begin college, and they were unable to participate in the July 16 ceremony.”

During the ceremonies, family and friends will remain in their vehicles while parked on the TMS infield as the speedway’s “Big Hoss,” a 12-story-tall video board, broadcasts the events.

Diplomas will be presented in a hands-free method to respect social distancing guidelines outlined by Denton County Health Services. Graduates will wear traditional academic regalia and walk across a staging area to receive their diplomas.

All ceremonies will be livestreamed online.

Graduating students and their families will receive additional information about the ceremony, such as arrival times and parking in the near future. White Settlement ISD will share any additional guidelines for the ceremony as health agencies provide their recommendations for social distancing and related health precautions in the coming weeks.

Actor blasts Fort Worth Stockyards bar after helping promote ‘illegal opening’ plan

Actor Michael Rapaport blasted a Fort Worth bar in a video after he helped promote the business’s planned reopening.

Rapaport, who is known for multiple television series and films such as “Deep Blue Sea” and “Beautiful Girls,” had filmed a video on cameo.com, a site where people can pay celebrities to film personal messages, before the planned opening of the Basement Bar in the Stockyards on Friday.

But the bar didn’t open Friday during the “Honky Tonk Crawl For Freedom.” Instead, about 50 people gathered outside near the Thirsty Armadillo.

In the explicit video posted on CentralTrack on Saturday, Rapaport denied knowing the background on the Basement Bar, which drew national scrutiny after its owners called the coronavirus pandemic lockdown “nonsense” and the COVID-19 threat “grossly over exaggerated” in social media posts last month.

“You said it was about supporting your bar, supporting the workers and to say [expletive] the haters,” Rapaport said in Saturday’s video. “You didn’t tell me you were using it to try to open up your bar illegally. I don’t support that. I don’t support you. I don’t support fake freedom riders. I don’t support any of that [expletive].”

The Basement Bar contends it never intended to open illegally.

In a post in response Saturday to Rapaport, the bar wrote on Facebook, “All the Basement Bar said was they were opening May 1st after the shutdown ends. That was perfectly legal. Then a week later the Governor releases a longer shutdown for bars, while other ‘bar’ restaurants can be open. The Basement then posted a rebuttal but explained that they would follow the rules as they have since March 18th. Then the cameo was posted, which is still hilarious”

Being “cussed out by (Rapaport) is an honor,” the bar’s post said.

Bud Kennedy column: Meet the Fort Worth leaders making a difference during the coronavirus pandemic

We have found our leaders.

In a pandemic that will be remembered not only for death and economic depression but also for the mushy double-talk of government officials, our African-American leaders have spoken loudest and strongest.

From the beginning of coronavirus fears, 15-year County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks of Fort Worth was out front.

He called for “stay home” orders March 22. We wound up days behind Dallas.

Since then, our case count has tracked behind Dallas’. And we haven’t peaked yet.

And there was no mistaking U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey’s clear Facebook video message to followers when he saw a large gathering April 8 on Miller Avenue.

“Back/back people!!!” he posted, with a fatherly warning.

With NFL planning to start on time, will Dallas Cowboys train in Oxnard or in Frisco?

Having learned a valuable lesson from the 132-day NFL lockout in 2011, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is working backwards in preparing his team for the 2020 season.

In 2011, McCarthy was coming off winning a Super Bowl title with the Green Bay Packers at AT&T Stadium and coming up with contingency plans for the offseason since they didn’t know if the lockout was going to swallow OTAs or mini camp.

But in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, everybody knows the first team gatherings won’t be until training camps begin in the latter half of July. But nobody knows where, so McCarthy has sought to minimize that variable by building two training camp schedules.

McCarthy has drawn up a plan for holding camp in Oxnard, where the Cowboys have held it every year since 2012, as well as a plan for holding it at The Star in Frisco should factors dictate that approach.

This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates May 3: Here’s what to know in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."