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.

Temperature checks and masks. This is how Fort Worth students arrived back at school.

On Monday morning, Rachel Saltsman did something she hasn’t been able to do in seven months: Drop her daughter off at school.

Saltsman is eager for her daughter to finish the school year in person. She and her first-grader arrived at Overton Park Elementary at around 7:30 a.m., wearing masks.

Her daughter was one of thousands of students who made their way into classrooms on Monday for the first time since schools shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Fort Worth Independent School District, which has about 80,000 students, let families choose if they would continue with online or in-person learning.

The return to classrooms signified the first step in Fort Worth ISD’s plan to restart in-person learning. Pre-K, kindergarten, first-grade, sixth-grade, ninth-grade, special education students and some seventh-graders were part of the first wave in the district’s plan to get back to in-person teaching.

Fort Worth ISD plans to gradually allow all grades to return to schools by Oct. 19.

‘Wealthy white folks’ hijacked Fort Worth back-to-school debate, committee member says

A member of the Fort Worth school board’s Racial Equity Committee struck a nerve with some residents when he argued in a column that “wealthy white folks” are controlling the back-to-school debate, with some saying his column labeled a large swath of people as racist.

Max Krochmal serves as a volunteer co-chair of the school board-appointed committee. On Sept. 22, the day the school board was set to vote again on the back-to-school date, an opinion column by Krochmal about the online learning debate appeared in the Fort Worth Weekly.

He wrote that “the demands for ‘rigor’ and ‘choice’ and now ‘in-person’ activities from the ultra-privileged have a habit of steamrolling other voices and our collective conversations on equity.”

Krochmal, who is an associate professor of history at TCU, said “wealthy white folks demand in-person learning” without regarding the cost to marginalized communities, who might not have health insurance or be able to pay for medical care if they contracted COVID-19.

“The folks in Tanglewood, Benbrook, and — worse — those who have already abandoned FWISD are insulated from the full effects of COVID,” he wrote.

Are Texas bars about to reopen? Gov. Abbott sends message toasting openings amid COVID

Texas could be about to lift more coronavirus safety limitations.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced “more openings soon” in a message posted on social media on Monday afternoon.

Abbott included a GIF of two beer mugs toasting with his message, which appears to indicate he might allow Texas bars to reopen at some capacity. Abbott closed bars in late June when coronavirus cases began to spike.

Texas defines a bar as an establishment where alcohol makes up more than 51% of sales.

Texas’ Department of State Health Services has reported 769,300 COVID-19 cases, including 16,033 deaths. There were eight pandemic-related deaths in the state reported on Monday, the fewest since March.

Tarrant County COVID cases dip after 7-week high, but hospitalizations keep rising

Tarrant County reported 266 new coronavirus cases and no deaths on Monday.

After a string of six days with 300 or more cases, including a seven-week high of 601 on Sunday, Monday’s total is the lowest since Sept. 28. New cases totals, however, have routinely been lower on Mondays because many labs do not report totals over the weekend.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased to 10% of occupied hospital beds in the county on Sunday, the highest rate since Aug. 23.

Tarrant County has reported a total of 52,366 COVID-19 cases, including 672 deaths and an estimated 45,046 recoveries.

COVID-19 causes respiratory illness with cough, fever and shortness of breath and may lead to bronchitis and severe pneumonia. For more information go to coronavirus.tarrantcounty.com or call the Tarrant County Public Health information line, 817-248-6299.