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COVID-19 updates: 'The virus is not gone,' Tarrant County officials say amidst sharp rise in hospitalizations, case counts

More than 16,550 Texans have died from the disease since tracking began in March, state data shows.

Tarrant County has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent days, official data shows. 

County officials reported its highest number of daily new cases since August on Sunday, with 683 confirmed cases and 111 probable cases for a total of 794. Officials with the county's public health department prefer to go by the combined number. 

The county has also seen an 85% jump in hospitalizations over the past three weeks, with 375 people now hospitalized due to the disease.

Tarrant County has recorded a total of 55,364 cases since March, with a death toll of 693 people so far.

“The 794 new cases today represents a very real and recent uptick in COVID-19 in our community as as a result of people being more socially active," said Vinny Taneja, the director of Tarrant County Public Health. "Most of these cases had illness starting within the last two weeks. The last four weeks we have seen a steady increase in our case counts!"

Editor's note: Explicit language is used in the video embedded below.

“We need to continue to practice social distancing, wearing masks, avoiding large groups and washing our hands," Taneja continued. "The virus is not gone and we need to protect ourselves at least until a vaccine is widely distributed.”

Dallas County Health and Human Services reported an additional 433 positive cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths from the disease Sunday. Those cases include 410 new cases and 23 cases from previous months. 

The 23 cases from previous months are broken down as follows:

  • 1 case each from May and July
  • 2 cases from August
  • 19 cases from September
  • 323 previously unreported cases from October

The county also reported 15 probable cases of COVID-19. 

The four people who died from COVID-19 were all residents of long-term care facilities in the county, and all but one had underlying health conditions. They were:

  • A Garland man in his 50s
  • A Dallas woman in her 70s
  • A Dallas man in his 90s
  • A Dallas woman in her 90s who did not have underlying health conditions

A total of 1,052 people have now died form COVID-19 in Dallas County since March.

The state of Texas reported 2,262 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, along with 31 new deaths from the disease. That brings the statewide case total to 792,478 people who have been infected and 16,557 who have died from COVID-19 since tracking began in March.

There are currently around 3,622 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals.

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