Tarrant County reports 2 COVID deaths, more than 1,000 new cases on Wednesday
Tarrant County Public Health reported two COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday — an Arlington man in his 80s and an Arlington man in his 50s. Both men had underlying health conditions, according to county officials.
There were 1,191 new cases reported with community spread level high, according to the county website. The case counts include data received through Friday, Dec. 24 with a backlog of cases not yet reported since the holiday weekend.
The county has reported 382,465 COVID-19 cases, including 5,011 deaths and an estimated 368,964 recoveries.
Note to readers: Tarrant County does not release data on the vaccination status of recently diagnosed patients or deaths. Officials have released this type of data once in June and it showed that nearly 100% of the new cases reported at the time (from May to mid-June) were in people who were not vaccinated. Further, county officials said fewer than 200 of those new cases at the time were in previously vaccinated Tarrant residents.
COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS
Hospitalized COVID patients increased by 77 to 335 in the latest seven-day moving average. The pandemic high was 1,528 on Jan. 6.
Confirmed COVID patients made up 473 of the 3,744 occupied hospital beds in the county. According to county data, there are 527 beds available out of the 4,271 total capacity.
There were 251 occupied ventilators, or 33%, in use by COVID patients out of the 517 available ventilators in the county.
Adult ICU bed occupancy increased to 95% from 91% reported on Dec. 23. The rate was last at a pandemic-high 99% on Oct. 7.
POSITIVITY RATE
The COVID-19 positive test rate for Tarrant County increased from 16.33% to 18.64% in the latest available seven-day-average data. The rate was at a pandemic-high 30% on Jan. 7.
VACCINATION DATA
Children ages 5 and older are now eligible for vaccination, so the following vaccination percentages have been altered by the Texas Department of State Health Services to reflect that larger population.
According to Texas DSHS, 67% of Tarrant County residents 5 or older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 59% of residents 5 or older have been fully vaccinated.
