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.

Digital divide is a high stakes challenge as the Fort Worth school year begins online

Last spring, as Fort Worth ISD shut down its buildings to slow the spread of COVID-19, Kelly Richey repackaged the material she covered in her English classes at North Side High School into online assignments that could be done from home.

During each lesson, students would watch a video and perform a few short tasks before they got to the core of the assignment. Each lesson was designed to take about 15 minutes.

But once online classes started, Richey noticed the time it took to finish the assignments varied drastically from one student to the next. A lesson that took one student 15 minutes could take another student an hour to complete, she said. While the online courses worked well enough for students with fast internet connections, Richey learned those with slower or unstable connections had problems.

It was especially an issue for families with two or three school-aged children who relied on a single wifi hotspot to do their work. Some of Richey’s students would get halfway through the tasks, then their internet connection would drop. Once they got back online, they’d have to start over again, she said. Over a full slate of classes, those delays could add several hours to a student’s school day, she said.

Those problems are just a small slice of what education researchers and school leaders call the homework gap. Nationwide, students in Black, Hispanic and low-income households are less likely than their peers to have access to the high-speed internet connections they need to do their homework. Like Fort Worth ISD, many districts rely on mobile wifi hotspots to close that gap, but those devices bring about challenges of their own.

Now, as Fort Worth ISD and other districts prepare to start the school year online, the stakes for those students are even higher.

“It is a very serious problem,” said Jordana Barton, a senior community development adviser for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “It’s not just about not being able to do your homework. Now, it’s about having access to school.”

Tarrant County adds new COVID-19 testing sites, including one in North Richland Hills

Tarrant County will add a new COVID-19 testing site in North Richland Hills and continue to offer saliva testing at other rotating sites along with the city of Fort Worth.

The North Richland Hills site, set to open Aug. 24, will be located at NRH2O Family Water Park, according to a Tarrant County press release. The tests will be self-administered mouth swabs and will be offered from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The county is working in partnership with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which will fund operating costs, and the city of North Richland Hills, which will provide staffing.

Testing is free and no proof of residency is required. Spanish-speaking staff will also be on site. People should receive their results between 72 and 96 hours through either email, text or a phone call.

“It is important that we have COVID-19 testing sites throughout Tarrant County” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Gary Fickes. “We needed access to more testing in Northeast Tarrant County and this NRH20 location will help fill that need.“

The rotating saliva-testing sites will be available from Aug. 26-28 in several locations throughout Fort Worth. They will be open to all Tarrant County residents, free of cost. Three other Fort Worth sites will continue testing indefinitely.

Tests at all sites are available by online appointment at covidtesting.tarrantcounty.com/. Those who do not have access to a computer can call 817-248-6299.

Health experts ‘cautiously optimistic’ by Texas’ COVID declines. School may change that

The lower case counts and a decline in hospitalizations of patients with the novel coronavirus across Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area is encouraging, but public health experts and epidemiologists warn it is not enough.

With schools reopening their doors and the upcoming Labor Day weekend, public health experts worry that an increase in the virus’ spread could be on the horizon.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. “Because as we’ve seen, things can change very quickly.”

In Tarrant County, hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients have dropped to their lowest levels since June, as have emergency room visits for COVID-19-like illnesses. And the virus’ spread locally has begun to decline, said Rajesh Nandy, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s School of Public Health.

The R0, pronounced “R-naught,” is a calculation used to estimate the number of new infections transmitted by a single case. If it’s above one, it means that each case is spreading to more than one person. If it’s below one, it indicates the virus’ spread is on the decline.

In Tarrant County, Nandy, who has been closely tracking Tarrant County’s data, said the R0 is now at about 0.95 — a decline from a high of 1.35 in late June and when it hovered above 1 in July.

But experts stress that caution is still needed.

Tarrant County reports 10 new deaths, 255 new confirmed coronavirus cases Sunday

Tarrant County reported 10 new deaths and 255 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing new totals to 515 deaths and 39,811 confirmed or probable infections since the start of the pandemic.

According to a news release from the county, the deceased include four men in their 80s, one from North Richland Hills, two from Arlington and one from White Settlement; a woman from Fort Worth in her 80s, two men in their 60s, one from Arlington and one from Fort Worth; a man from Arlington in his 50s; a woman from Fort Worth in her 50s; and a man from Fort Worth in his 20s.

The county reports 32,632 recoveries but notes that those numbers are not exact and recoveries are not a required statistic for hospitals or individuals to report. Deaths and recoveries are counted in the total number of confirmed cases, and 1,977 of the cases are considered probable rather than confirmed.

The highest number of confirmed cases have been in Fort Worth and Arlington, with 17,807 and 7,267, respectively. Fort Worth has reported 259 deaths while Arlington confirmed 80.

The next highest number of infections came from Euless with 946 total confirmed cases. White Settlement had the third highest number of coronavirus deaths at 23.

The county has 336 hospital beds occupied by confirmed coronavirus patients and 556 ventilators available.

Patients 65 or older make up 70% of reported COVID-19 deaths in the county.

Tarrant County classifies the level of infections through community spread as substantial.

Dallas County adds 332 coronavirus cases, 2 deaths on Sunday

Dallas County reported 332 additional cases of coronavirus on Sunday, 93 of which are from the backlog in cases from the state’s health department.

Two deaths were also reported on Sunday: a man in his 60s from Grand Prairie and a man in his 70s from Mesquite. They both had underlying health conditions, according to the Dallas County health department.

Of the 332 cases, 239 were not part of the backlog. Five of the backlogged cases are from March, 31 are from April, 22 are from June, and three are from July.

Sunday’s numbers bring the county’s total cases to 68,904 and 857 deaths.

The average number of cases in Dallas County has declined to 256 a day, compared with 916 in the middle of July.

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.

Steve Wilson swilson@star-telegram.com

Texans who lost jobs because of COVID can now get $300 more in benefits per week

Texans who are unemployed because of the novel coronavirus outbreak may soon see an additional $300 per week in unemployment benefits after Texas received federal approval Friday.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved the Texas Workforce Commission’s application to provide the additional benefits under the program authorized by President Donald Trump earlier this month.

Texans who receive more than $100 of certain state unemployment benefits should receive the additional money after Aug. 23. The funds will be applied retroactively to the week ending Aug. 1. Texans receiving unemployment benefits from the state should continue to request payments as they normally would, according to a news release.

Those who have not certified they have been affected by COVID-19 will have a chance to do so in their next payment request starting Monday, Cisco Gamez, a spokesman for the Texas Workforce Commission, wrote in an email Friday afternoon.

In a statement, Abbott thanked the Trump administration for “swiftly granting these funds to help Texans who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds will help Texans in need support their families as we work to revitalize the economy and get Texans back to work.”

High school football returns in Dallas-Fort Worth with rules set amid coronavirus pandemic

Brock’s offense dominated early against Midlothian Heritage during Thursday night’s scrimmage and for one day, football was back and things had returned to some sense of normalcy.

After the coronavirus pandemic decimated the course of the offseason — canceling spring football and 7-on-7 — the first and only scrimmages in Texas took place this week in Class 4A and below. Most of those teams will kick off the season Aug. 27-29.

“It’s been a long time from March since we did something organized like this and it’s just nice to be back out here with the kids,” said Brock coach Chad Worrell.

Fans were required to wear masks while coming into the stadium, which was limited to 50% capacity. They were socially distanced in the stands unless they were sitting with family.

Spectators standing along the fence also kept their distance from one another. Concession workers, coaches and trainers were also wearing masks.

“Things are getting back to normal, and it’s a welcomed thing. We’ve been waiting a long time and we hope it’s the start of something great, not only for our kids, but all the kids,” said Ross Dillingham, whose son Luke is a senior free safety at Brock. “It’s been tough, but they’ve overcome. They had to battle through. It’s just good to be back and have a chance to watch football again.”

Texas private high school league cancels fall sports due to coronavirus pandemic

The Southwest Preparatory Conference, the second-largest private school organization in Texas, announced Friday that it would cancel the 2020 fall athletic season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We recognize each of our member schools are under unusual and challenging circumstances regarding each aspect of school operations,” the league said in a press release. “We recognize we are members of a conference with a wide variance in local conditions, approaches and opinions regarding how to handle these challenging circumstances as they relate to athletic competition.

“We recognize our member schools are located in multiple metro areas, spread over a wide geographic area, with varying health conditions, regulations, public opinions and governmental recommendations.”

Falls sports canceled include football, girls and boys volleyball, cross country and field hockey.

“The SPC Board of Directors further approves maintaining existing plans for the winter and spring SPC championship seasons, and those plans be sustained without alteration and played as currently scheduled consistent with current SPC policies,” the league said. “The Operations Committee and SPC board of directors will revisit plans for winter and spring seasons at a later date and determine if any adjustments are required as a result of circumstances at that time.”