Coronavirus live updates Sept. 8: 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.
Fort Worth ISD school year begins online Tuesday. But when can in-person classes start?
As the start of the school year arrives in Fort Worth, Andrea Contreras doesn’t know how to feel.
Both her kids are middle schoolers at Daggett Montessori School in Fort Worth ISD. Contreras works full time in billing at a doctor’s office, so she’s at work during the day. Her husband is self-employed, and he can’t always stay home. When online classes start Tuesday, they’ll have to leave their kids at home unsupervised.
That didn’t work well last spring, Contreras said. Ezekiel, who will start sixth grade, had more online class work to do than their daughter Serenity, who is starting seventh grade. Contreras and her husband had to stay on top of Ezekiel to make sure he was doing his assignments, but that was hard to do when neither parent was home during the day, she said.
Contreras also worries that if her kids go back to school in person, it might put them at greater risk of getting sick. One of them could be exposed to COVID-19 at school and bring it home to the entire family. Or if Contreras or her husband were infected at work, the virus could spread to their kids, who could then take it to school, she said.
“I want them to go back,” she said. “But at the same time, I understand why they’re not opening yet.”
Tuesday is the first day of school for Fort Worth ISD. The district is starting the year online because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19. It intends for in-person classes to resume Oct. 5, but a number of factors make that anything but a certainty, most notably whether there will be a spike in cases after this holiday weekend.
And even when classes resume in person, there will be uncertainty about how long that can be maintained.
How safe is your kid’s class? Tarrant schools struggle to meet all COVID guidelines
The bell rang at 3:45 p.m. and in a few minutes, hundreds of students began to stream out of Keller Middle School. Most wore masks and kept to themselves as they hurried to catch their ride or waited in socially distant lines to catch the school bus.
The Keller school district opened its doors Aug. 26 for in-person-learning. Less than half, or about 15,000 of the district’s more than 35,000 students, opted to come back to class. Nine have tested positive for COVID-19 in eight schools.
“I still think it’s wonderful that children are back in school,” said Stacy Harris on Wednesday. She has two children at Florence Elementary. “I think the district is doing a good job and virtual learning was a nightmare.”
At least six more Fort Worth area school districts return for in-person-learning Tuesday. Like Keller, they will be opening their doors at a medium risk level based on their re-entry plans, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The safety plans follow CDC and Tarrant County Public Health guidelines. But not all schools will be able to put in place all recommendations because of campus design and classroom sizes, according to a survey of 16 districts by the Star-Telegram.
Taps flow again in Fort Worth’s West 7th district as state tweaks alcohol sales rule
Pink and purple spotlights are twisting from the ceiling. Drinks are flowing from cocktail shakers as neon signs snap on. Music pulses.
On Norwood Street in Fort Worth’s West 7th District, 50 Cent thunders from speakers as a bouncer watches people in the line before him search through pockets and purses for IDs and face masks.
“I’ll take you to the candy shop.”
As the novel coronavirus began to spread early this year, bar closures siphoned life and money from the district. As summer closes, fun, it appears, has returned to West 7th. Communicable disease seems far from top of mind.
None of the newly reopened businesses are, for the moment, bars, which remain closed under an executive order Gov. Greg Abbott has said was intended to tame COVID-19’s advance. They are restaurants, at least as demonstrated in sales affidavits and other documents owners have submitted to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Tarrant County excludes Fort Worth parents from $30-a-week child care program
Tarrant County is excluding Fort Worth families from a program that provides child care for $30 a week during virtual classes.
The program, named Tarrant County School-Age Collaborative, runs Tuesday through Oct. 30. For $30 a week, parents — except those who live in Fort Worth — can drop off their kindergarten through sixth-grade child at any of the following locations: Clayton Youth Enrichment, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County, Girls Inc. of Tarrant County or YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth. Registration is at claytonyouth.org.
Tarrant County is subsidizing the program through money it received from the federal CARES Act. It will pay $170 per child and equip the buildings with WiFi. Children must bring their own computers.
Judge Glen Whitley said the county is excluding Fort Worth families because the city received its own CARES Act package of $158 million and could use some of that money for the city’s residents.
Whitley said this doesn’t create any tension with the city nor should it between the residents and the county because it’s simply about each local government deciding how to use the federal money. Whitley said small business grants and COVID-19 testing contracts have been done the same way.
Texas doctors await period after Labor Day, school, flu season with mixed hope and dread
Healthcare professionals were crossing their fingers as Labor Day approached.
It’ll take a couple of weeks to get the test results back on new COVID-19 cases that crop up after Labor Day weekend. If Labor Day works out OK, doctors will proceed to cross their fingers as the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays get closer.
They will cross their fingers with the hope that public resolve does not wane over time, that lessons learned from the Memorial Day holiday will persist, that people will not become complacent and go without masks, or get too close to friends and strangers or gather in large crowds.
“This is something that we will, more likely than not, continue with through the rest of this year and more likely a little into next year,” said Dr. Shawn Riley, CareNow regional medical director.
Labor Day and the holidays beyond, school re-openings, parties, family gatherings and big indoor crowds are points of concern for healthcare professionals.
Arlington schools push back return to campus date to Sept. 28 with hybrid model
Arlington school district students will be able to return to campus starting Sept. 28 after the board approved plans to introduce a hybird learning model.
The board approved the plan 5-2.
Students whose parents elect for them to return to campus will be assigned days of the week to be on campus through Oct. 9. During other days of the week, the students will continue their online instruction.
Students or parents who want their students to remain online will still have that option.
After Oct. 9, students at elementary and junior high schools who elected to return under the hybrid model will return to campus every day while high schools continue operating under a hybrid model.
Tarrant County hospital capacity
Hospital capacity by available beds and ventilators for Tarrant County. Data provided by Tarrant County Public Health.
Dallas County reports no COVID-19 deaths for first time in 2 weeks
Dallas County reported 261 coronavirus cases and no deaths on Monday.
Of the cases Monday, 177 previously were unreported, including 142 from earlier this month and 35 from August.
It’s the first time the county hasn’t reported a pandemic-related death since Aug. 24.
Dallas County has confirmed 73,961 COVID-19 cases, including 946 deaths. The county does not report recoveries.
Tarrant County did not report new cases or deaths on Sunday or Monday because of the holiday weekend. Tarrant County will update its numbers on Tuesday.
More Texans than ever are near financial crisis. Here’s how your ZIP code is doing.
A report released Monday showed that COVID-19 hit at a time when more Texans than ever are one crisis away from financial ruin.
The report, put together by United Ways of Texas, studies a financial group called ALICE — which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. People in this category work, but they still cannot afford the basics for survival due to stagnant wages and the increased costs of essentials.
Of the 9.8 million households in 2018 in Texas, nearly 3 million were ALICE — an increase of 9% since 2007. That number is in addition to the nearly 1.4 million families who fall below the poverty level.
The report focuses on the increased cost of six essentials —housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a basic smartphone plan.
In Tarrant County, 25% of the population lived in this critical group as of 2018, and 11% of people lived in poverty. The county fell below the state average of 30%, but Fort Worth had more than the state average with 44% of families considered in the ALICE level. Arlington had 37% and Northeast Tarrant had 27%.
Hometown Hero: Leader of nonprofit brings hope, compassion to kids fighting illnesses amid COVID
Judy Youngs is determined to help children with life-threatening medical conditions and their families find a little magic and fun as they fight cancer and other serious illnesses.
Youngs is president and CEO of the Fort Worth nonprofit A Wish With Wings, which grants wishes such as trips to Disney World or a snowy Christmas morning with presents for Texas children who are medically fragile.
Youngs, 70, was hired 10 years ago, and she said the children and their families give her inspiration and strength because they never give up.
“Being on that journey with them is what makes this job so special. It’s not the work we do, but it’s the work they do to follow their journey,” Youngs said.
Elyse Barnard, whose daughter Hallie Bea is one of the “wish kids,” nominated Youngs for recognition in the Star-Telegram Hometown Heroes series for her work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hometown Heroes is sponsored by Lockheed Martin, which is providing $1,000 each to the 28 people selected by the Star-Telegram to be featured in the weekly series.
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.
As domestic violence incidents rise, two DFW agencies are getting $1.7 million
Two Tarrant County agencies that help women who are experiencing domestic violence will get more than $1.7 million from the U.S. Justice Department, as federal and local officials respond to data showing increased instances of intimate partner violence during the coronavirus pandemic.
The funding is part of more than $18 million the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women is giving to organizations across Texas, the state’s four U.S. attorneys announced during a telephone news conference on Friday. SafeHaven of Tarrant County and the Women’s Center of Tarrant County are both receiving $600,000 to go toward providing legal services to victims of domestic violence.
SafeHaven of Tarrant County is additionally receiving $515,000 to support its transitional housing for women fleeing violence as well as its therapy services.
As more Texans have been quarantining at home or working from home, several cities — including Fort Worth and Dallas — have seen a corresponding surge in domestic violence incidents, officials said during the conference. The grants are supporting everything from local healthcare professionals to academic researchers, in cities from Houston to Austin.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 10:49 AM.