Coronavirus live updates Sept. 18: 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 opening almost all businesses to 75% capacity except for 3 regions of state
Texas is allowing most of the state’s businesses, including restaurants, retail stores, gyms and office buildings currently open at 50% capacity to open to 75% capacity beginning Monday.
Three regions excluded from this 75% capacity measure are the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, and Victoria, according to Gov. Greg Abbott.
In those excluded regions, defined by Trauma Service Areas, COVID-19 hospitalizations remain higher than 15% of total hospitalizations.
The 19 regions of the state allowed to open to 75%, including Fort Worth and Dallas, can also immediately resume elective medical procedures, and nursing homes and other types of assisted living centers that don’t have coronavirus outbreaks will be allowed to reopen for visitation under certain guidelines next week.
Bars will remain closed, Abbott said at a press conference Thursday afternoon in Austin. “Because bars are nationally recognized as COVID-spreading locations, they are still not able to open at this time,” the governor said.
Abbott said officials are looking to find ways to let bars reopen safely.
Fort Worth-area bar owners ‘heartbroken’ as they are again left out of COVID-19 reopening
Fort Worth-area bar owners were once again disappointed and frustrated after Thursday’s announcement that Texas bars would be excluded from the plan to reopen most businesses to 75% capacity.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that most of the state’s businesses, including restaurants, retail stores, gyms and office buildings currently open at 50% capacity, would be able to open to 75% capacity beginning Monday.
Three regions excluded from this 75% capacity measure are the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, and Victoria.
In a statement, the Texas Bar and Nightclub Alliance president said Thursday’s decision “has destroyed the lives of generations of hard-working Texans.”
”Governor Abbott’s actions today are unacceptable,” Michael Klein said in the statement. “At his hand alone, bar owners are having their livelihoods destroyed and are losing everything without being given a chance at reopening in a safe and responsible manner. By his own admission, different regions of the state should be treated differently based on their current battle against COVID-19, yet bars are shut down everywhere regardless of the local data.”
More than 2,000 Texas students have tested positive for COVID-19, new data shows
Texas schools have reported that 2,344 students and 2,175 staff members have tested positive for coronavirus since the school year began, according to a COVID-19 dashboard released by the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday.
Those that tested positive represent students and staff who were on campus, according to a press release.
Since the start of the school year, there have about 1.1 million students and about 800,000 staff members who have been on campus, so the number who have tested positive is less than 1 percent.
The dashboard will be updated weekly on Wednesdays. The data provided is representative of all schools in the state but starting next week it will also be broken down by district.
Fort Worth school district officials voted Tuesday to give families the option to return to in-person learning on Oct. 5. While case counts specific to the Fort Worth Independent School District have not yet been released by the state, the Tarrant County Public Health Department recommends that most school districts in the county consider hybrid learning, which is a mix of in-person and online classes.
Tarrant County COVID hospitalizations remain steady past 3 weeks; 4 deaths reported
Tarrant County reported 285 coronavirus cases and four deaths on Thursday.
Those who died were an Arlington man in his 50s, an Arlington woman in her 60s, an Azle man in his 60s and a Fort Worth man in his 80s. All four had underlying health conditions, according to officials.
Tarrant County has reported 45,868 COVID-19 cases, including 616 deaths and an estimated 40,330 recoveries.
Since Aug. 26, the percent of all hospital beds used by COVID-19 patients has hovered between 4%-5%. It was at 4% on Wednesday. The last time it was as high as 6% was Aug. 25. The county has reported 101 COVID-related deaths in that span.
Dallas County reported 458 cases and one death on Thursday. Of the 458 cases, 316 were previously unreported, including 264 from September, 50 from August, and two from July. Dallas County has confirmed 76,607 COVID-19 cases, including 986 deaths. The county does not report recoveries.
Tarrant County hospital capacity
Hospital capacity by available beds and ventilators for Tarrant County. Data provided by Tarrant County Public Health.
COVID-19 positive test rates vary greatly among Southern states.
Public health experts and political officials monitor a slew of data to gauge the scope of the coronavirus pandemic in their region — perhaps none more closely than the percent of positive test results.
The percent positive measures “the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive,” according to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Unlike the number of new daily COVID-19 cases or total case counts, the percent positive indicates when the number of positive tests are too high as well as when the number of total tests are too low.
“The percent positive is a critical measure because it gives us an indication how widespread infection is in the area where the testing is occurring — and whether levels of testing are keeping up with levels of disease transmission,” according to Johns Hopkins.
Before states reopen, the World Health Organization advises the percent positive rate be 5% or lower for at least two weeks.
Matthew Fox, professor of epidemiology and global health at Boston University, told ProPublica a higher positivity rate is indicative of only sick people getting tested, leaving out more mild or asymptomatic cases.
States where the positivity rate is higher than 10% suggest “we’re probably missing a fair number of cases, and you’re not doing enough testing to see what’s going on,” he said.
Here’s how each state in the South ranks from lowest percent positive to highest.
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.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 11:35 AM.