Coronavirus live updates July 13: Here’s what to know in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
Tarrant County reported 322 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths on Monday.
The county has recorded 18,483 cases and 272 deaths, according to Tarrant County data. The county also reports at least 8,735 recoveries.
COVID-19 patients were using about 17% of all occupied hospital beds in the county as of Monday, according to county data. About 69% of all hospital beds in the county are now occupied. About 37% of the county’s ventilators are in use.
Meanwhile, almost all key COVID-19 statistics in the county are rising.
Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients have more than tripled since June 1. Positive cases also have more than tripled, and the seven-day average testing positivity rate has more than doubled from less than 10 percent to about 20%.
Cases surging at FMC Carswell
Sandra Shoulders feels like she’s living in a horror movie.
Every day, prison staff at FMC Carswell, a federal medical prison in Fort Worth, take about a dozen people out of her unit to get tested for COVID-19. Some of them come back; others do not.
When a woman tests positive for the virus, her mattress is dragged from the room she shares with three other people and stacked in what used to be the TV room. Every day, the mountain of mattresses grows. Shoulders tries to avoid walking past it.
The number of cases at the prison has swelled from three to 130 in the past two weeks. Inmates said they have not been allowed to leave their rooms since last week, cells are not immediately sanitized after someone tests positive, and there’s a shortage of cleaning supplies and personal protection equipment.
Out of the 1,373 women at the prison, 645 have been tested and 465 are awaiting test results, according to Bureau of Prisons data.
Estimated active cases over time
Coronavirus daily active case estimates by local counties in the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex, beginning April 8, 2020. Data provided by Texas Health and Human Services.
