Here’s how many lives coronavirus stay at home orders may have saved in Tarrant County
Stay-at-home orders established to slow the novel coronavirus are believed to have saved more than 200,000 lives and prevented at least 2.1 million people from being hospitalized, estimates show.
In Tarrant County, the order likely saved 5,583 lives and prevented 53,096 people from being hospitalized, according to estimates released by the Big Cities Health Coalition.
“Ordering people to shelter in their homes was unprecedented and difficult. Everyone’s collective action has dramatically slowed the spread of COVID-19,” Sara Cody, chair of the coalition, said in a statement. “These measures have prevented many infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
“It’s tempting to let up, but we need to massively scale up two essential guardrails — testing and contact tracing — to protect the progress we’ve made, as well as the most vulnerable among us.”
Tarrant County stay-at-home orders were in place from March 24 through the end of April.
As of Friday, there were 3,127 positive cases of coronavirus in Tarrant County, which included 95 deaths and 735 recoveries.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who also put in a statewide stay-at-home order that superseded all local orders, let his order expire April 30. Retail businesses were allowed to reopen May 1; salons and barbershops could open Friday.
The Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health calculated the estimates based on a model published by The New York Times.
In Dallas County, 6,997 lives were believed to be saved, and 66,556 hospitalizations were believed to be avoided.
“While we as a country have lost far too many to COVID-19, stay-at-home orders across the nation have made a real difference in the number of hospitalizations and deaths,” Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, said in a statement.
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
