Coronavirus live updates Aug. 20: Here’s what to know in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
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.
Texas to apply for extra $300 per week in benefits for Texans unemployed due to COVID
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the Texas Workforce Commission applied for a federal program that would give Texans who are out of work due to the novel coronavirus’ outbreak an extra $300 in benefits per week.
If approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Texans who are receiving more than $100 of certain state unemployment benefits should receive the additional funds after Aug. 23. The funds will be retroactively applied to the week ending Aug. 1, and Texans currently receiving unemployment benefits from the state should continue to request payments as they normally would, according to a news release.
Eleven states have already been approved by FEMA to offer the extra $300 in benefits, according to the agency.
After an extra $600 per week in federal jobless benefits expired on July 31, President Donald Trump authorized the additional funds in an Aug. 8 executive order. The order had originally required states provide matching funds of $100 per week in order to receive the $300 in federal funds.
The U.S. Department of Labor clarified last week that states would not be required to provide matching funds, and could offer only the $300 in federal benefits per week by counting funds they have already used toward unemployment insurance payments for the state’s portion.
A spokesman for the Texas Workforce Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning on whether Texas will be contributing the additional $100 per week. According to FEMA’s guidance, states may provide the extra $100 in assistance through funds allocated through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act.
Hometown Hero: Fort Worth woman overcame pandemic, addiction to help others before her death
Chantelle Menton was on the right track.
She had finally kicked her addiction to methadone, she had developed a strong connection with her faith, she was in the middle of raising four children, and she loved her job at the Fort Worth Hope Center, her husband Shaun Menton said.
But Chantelle Menton, 36, died on June 16 from a wound that got infected by a flesh-eating disease called “necrotizing fasciitis” — just as things were falling into place.
“She had so many positive things going on in her life,” said Brittany Hughes, financial administrator at the Hope Center, a faith-based food pantry and training center in Fort Worth.
“And she never stopped fighting to get her family out of the low-income area they’ve always lived in.”
Despite the challenges that life threw at her, like addiction and financial hardship, Chantelle Menton always helped her community.
“She took everything that was negative in her life and made that her testimony to help others,” said Donna Taylor, human resources director at the Hope Center. “She pulled people out of the same situations she used to be in.”
When the coronavirus pandemic struck Fort Worth, Taylor said that the workload at the Hope Center intensified dramatically for all of its employees.
Taylor said the number of clients increased by about 500% and that volunteers could no longer help out, which meant more work for full-time staff members like Chantelle Menton.
Shaun Menton, 47, nominated his wife of 20 years for recognition in the Star-Telegram’s Hometown Hero series because nothing ever stopped her from being “compassionate” toward others — not her struggles nor the pandemic.
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.
Tarrant County reports 16 COVID deaths, including 5 in July, 1 in June; 346 new cases
Tarrant County reported 16 additional coronavirus deaths and 346 new cases on Wednesday.
The deaths include 10 from August, five from July and one from June, which were previously unreported, according to county officials.
The latest COVID-19 deaths include a Haltom City man in his 30s, and a Bedford woman in her 60s who did not have underlying health conditions. The 15 others had underlying health conditions.
The 16 deaths reported Wednesday:
- Haltom City man in his 30s
- Fort Worth man in his 50s
- Bedford woman in her 60s
- Fort Worth woman in her 60s
- Two Fort Worth men in their 60s
- Arlington man and woman in their 70s
- Richland Hills man in his 70s
- Fort Worth woman from in her 70s
- Three White Settlement women in their 80s
- Southlake woman in her 80s
- North Richland Hills woman in her 80s
- Fort Worth man in his 90s
Tarrant County hospital capacity
Hospital capacity by available beds and ventilators for Tarrant County. Data provided by Tarrant County Public Health.
Dallas County reports fewer new coronavirus cases at 399, plus 5 deaths
Dallas County reported 399 new coronavirus cases and five deaths on Wednesday.
Forty-four of the new cases were previously unreported from the Texas Department of State Health Services, including 26 in May, 16 in April and two in June.
The county has confirmed 66,464 COVID-19 cases overall, including 843 deaths. The county does not report recoveries.
Officials are reporting 2,530 probable cases, including eight probable COVID-19-related deaths.
The five pandemic-related deaths Wednesday include one death listed as probably caused by COVID-19, while the others are confirmed.
The deaths are of DeSoto women in their 40s, 70s and 80s and Dallas men in their 70s and 80s who did not have underlying health conditions.
Wednesday’s new cases are the fewest since Aug. 12 and fifth fewest in August.
“The overall trend is a gradual decline, and if we maintain our community resolve to wear masks, maintain six-foot distancing, use good hand hygiene, and forgo unnecessary trips and any activities around people who are not wearing a mask one hundred percent of the time, we will continue to see the numbers improve, less people get sick, more businesses stay open, more activities become permissible and our kids getting back to school sooner rather than later,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a release and on social media.
UNT Health Science Center will provide coronavirus contact tracing for Tarrant County
In an effort to increase Tarrant County’s fight against coronavirus, the county and the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth struck a $1.9 million partnership to perform contract tracing.
County commissioners approved the contract on Tuesday with the funding coming from the CARES Act. The health science center will provide 90 students to work part-time.
The county had reported 38,476 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday morning. Vinny Taneja, county public health director, said Tuesday the county’s epidemic curve continues to trend downward.
Contact tracing allows the county to identify others who may have been exposed to the virus so they can take steps to self-isolate, monitor their health and inform close contacts about potential risks.
Students are expected to begin Sept. 1 and work through Dec. 30, when the contract ends.
Editorial: Six months in, Texas’ failure to correctly count coronavirus cases is pathetic
There’s an old saying in business: You measure what you value.
But when the measurements are sloppy and ill-timed, they don’t have much value at all.
So it is, apparently, with Texas’ COVID-19 case numbers.
State health officials realized recently that they have hundreds of thousands of backlogged cases because of a confluence of errors and ill-preparedness. So, counties are learning of virus cases from June and July, scrambling our understanding of where various areas are in the pandemic and far too late to do any effective contact tracing. In Tarrant County alone, it’s thousands of undercounted cases.
Nearly six months into the pandemic, and Texas health officials still don’t have a firm grasp on the basic math of COVID-19. How pathetic.
Read the whole editorial here.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 11:43 AM.