Coronavirus live updates June 24: 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 COUPLE MARRIED 53 YEARS DIED OF COVID-19 WHILE HOLDING EACH OTHER’S HANDS
Curtis and Betty Tarpley lay together in a hospital room in Fort Worth and held hands. They shared 53 years of marriage, two children, 159 years of life, and a slew of adventures that brought them from a high school in Illinois to a cozy home in Fort Worth.
On June 18, as their fingers laced together, the Tarpleys took their last breath, their lives ended by an invisible virus that attacked their bodies for nearly two weeks.
Their deaths will become another number recorded to keep track of the toll COVID-19 has taken in the United States and world. They leave behind a son and daughter, an ordinary “old-timey” love and young friends who will forever remember them as a couple who worked hard and cared deeply about others.
When the couple’s health began to deteriorate, the hospital workers moved them into the same room.
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“I don’t know how one would have survived without the other,” their daughter Tricia said. “I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘I’m so sorry you lost them both,’ but I almost think it would have hurt worse. They’re together. Neither one of them had to grieve for the other one. For them it was perfect.”
AS FORT WORTH AREA COVID CASES SPIKE, RESIDENTS ARE URGED TO DO THESE 3 THINGS
As coroanvirus cases continue to rise, health care and elected officials asked urged Tarrant County residents Tuesday to stay home, wear masks and practice social distancing.
“Staying at home is still the best strategy, “ Public Health Director Vinny Taneja told county commissioners during their weekly meeting. “We understand if you have to go out and make a living.
“Social distancing is the best tool. The least you can do is put on a mask and keep your distance.”
Taneja told reporters after the meeting that the rise in cases came after businesses began to reopen and people started going to stores and restaurants. Fort Worth Cryptocurrency News He also cited Mother’s Day and Memorial Day gatherings, the protests, and graduation ceremonies and parties.
In recent weeks, the number of cases grew, as did the number of hospital beds being used for coronavirus patients.
The number of hospitalized COVID patients in Tarrant County has increased from 180 to 318 since late May.
TEXAS REPORTS RECORD 5,489 NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES, HOSPITALIZATIONS RISE FOR 12TH DAY
Texas reported a new single day-high of coronavirus cases Tuesday and reached a new all-time high of hospitalized COVID-19 patients for the twelfth straight day.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 5,489 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and 4,092 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Tuesday’s hospitalizations were a jump of 381 patients from the previous record of 3,711 hospitalized Monday.
Gov. Greg Abbott had previewed the new single-day high during television interviews Tuesday afternoon before DSHS released specific figures.
“There remain a lot of people in the state of Texas who think that the spread of COVID-19 is really not a challenge,” Abbott told KBTX-TV, a CBS affiliate in Bryan-College Station. “Know this, and that is today Texas will report an all-time high in the number of cases of people testing positive of more than 5,000.”
The previous single-day high was 4,430 cases on Saturday. Since last Wednesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services has reported over 3,000 new cases each day, with 3,866 on Sunday and 3,280 on Monday. Fort Worth Stock Market At least 2,192 deaths have been reported through Monday.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers in Washington D.C. Tuesday that the next couple of weeks would be critical to address recent surges in states like Texas.
COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS OVER TIME
Coronavirus daily hospitalization counts in Texas and the larger Trauma Service Areas, beginning April 8, 2020. Data provided by Texas Health and Human Services.
Flourish StudioSTEVE WILSON SWILSON@STAR-TELEGRAM.COM
TARRANT COUNTY CORONAVIRUS CASES NEARLY DOUBLE IN ONE MONTH AS 260 REPORTED TUESDAY
Tarrant County reported 260 new coronavirus cases and one death on Tuesday.
The latest death is a Fort Worth woman in her 70s who had underlying health conditions.
The county has confirmed 9,386 COVID-19 cases, including 211 deaths and at least 4,513 recoveries. Among the total pandemic-related deaths in the county, 121 have been in Fort Worth.
In the past seven days, Tarrant County has added 1,282 cases and five deaths.
The county has added 4,423 cases and 53 deaths in the past month after it had previously confirmed 4,963 cases and 158 deaths.
The first COVID-19 case was reported in Tarrant County on March 11. It took 73 days for the county to reach 4,963 cases.
DALLAS COUNTY ‘SECOND WAVE’ CONTINUES WITH THIRD DAY OF 400-PLUS COVID CASES, 7 DEATHS
Dallas County reported more than 400 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day and seven more deaths.
Tuesday’s 445 COVID-19 cases is second only to Monday’s record 454.
The seven deaths include three patients who did not have underlying health issues. The deaths include two Irving men in their 40s and 50s, two Fort Worth Press Release men and one woman in their 60s, a Mesquite man in his 80s who was a resident of a long-term care facility, and a Dallas man in his 80s.
Dallas County has confirmed a total of 17,744 COVID-19 cases, including 324 deaths.
In the North Texas region, which includes a 19-county area, there are more than 1,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations for the first time during the pandemic.
The county has reported 300 or more COVID-19 cases each day since June 10 and at least 200 cases each day since May 28.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who called the spike a “second wave,” urged residents to adhere to CDC and local health officials’ guidelines, including face masks, social distancing and limiting trips to public spaces as much as possible.
“Our essential workers and healthcare heroes are counting on you to make good, strong personal responsibility choices as essential workers face increased risk and our healthcare heroes are facing a tremendous increase in the number of people they are seeing in the hospitals,” he said.
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.
Flourish StudioSTEVE WILSON SWILSON@STAR-TELEGRAM.COM
STUDY PREDICTS MASSIVE NORTH TEXAS CORONAVIRUS SURGE THROUGHOUT SUMMER AND INTO FALL
A new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center predicts a surge in coronavirus cases throughout the summer and into the fall.
The report, which is part of a series during the pandemic, examined the latest trends in the North Texas region, including hospitalizations and age.
“If the current path continues, cases will grow significantly throughout the summer and autumn in the absence of increased adherence to recommended physical distancing guidelines (keeping 6 feet between people) and wide-spread use of masks,” the report said.
According to the data, current social distancing and prevention measures are 63% effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. If that remains, the study predicts 500 new daily cases in August and more than 900 cases a day by November. The projections worsen if the effective rate lowers and improve if the rate increases. For example, the study shows if the effective prevention rate improves by just 2%, daily case averages would eventually fall to about 200 by November. If the effective rate was 68%, the study says new cases would be nearly nonexistent by November.
If the prevention rate drops to 61%, daily coronavirus cases could balloon to more than 1,000 a day by August.
PRELIMINARY GUIDANCE FOR TEXAS SCHOOLS AMID COVID OFFERS SUGGESTIONS, BUT FEW MANDATES
The Texas Education Agency would largely encourage school districts to take extra health and safety measures — like the use of face masks — but would not mandate them under a draft plan of its guidance on returning to schools in person this fall.
The draft documents detailing the agency’s plans amid the spread of the coronavirus were first reported Tuesday by the Texas Tribune, and appear to have been removed from the agency’s website as of 2:30 p.m. However, snapshots of the guidance were cached by Google before they had been taken down.
A TEA spokesperson confirmed that earlier documents were drafts that “were posted in the staging portion of the TEA website by mistake as part of an internal document review.”
A final version of the guidance on attendance and enrollment was later publicly released at 3 p.m., according to a TEA spokesperson. However, the document including public health guidance is still being finalized.
“As we continue to closely monitor the public health situation, we are, in fact, still soliciting feedback on the Public Health Guidance. Additional guidance will be provided soon,” a TEA spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “We will continue to prioritize public health and safety above all else.”
The agency had been expected to share additional details Tuesday, after Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath told state lawmakers on a call last week that public school students will return to campuses this fall.
WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AN INFLAMMATORY SYNDROME LINKED TO THE CORONAVIRUS
A child’s fever may have a new underlying cause.
Cases of COVID-19-related inflammation throughout the bodies of children have led physicians to urge parents not to disregard a temperature spike.
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition in which organs including the heart, lungs and kidneys become swollen.
Many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes COVID-19 or were near someone with the novel coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
Every major children’s hospital in Texas has diagnosed patients with the syndrome, physicians familiar with the cases said.
Since the novel coronavirus began to emerge, five children have been treated for MIS-C at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. All of the patients have returned home, a hospital spokeswoman said.
TABC HAS SUSPENDED 17 BARS ACROSS TEXAS, INCLUDING ANOTHER IN FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS
A second Fort Worth bar has been temporarily closed by authorities for violating state reopening orders on limited capacity during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cantina Cadillac of the Stockyards joins nearby The New PR’s, which was suspended for 30 days on Sunday.
The suspension is part of Operation Safe Open, a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission effort to ensure safety measures are followed to slow the spread of COVID-19. Protocols include indoor customer capacity limits of 50% for bars and 75% for restaurants, along with social distancing of at least 6 feet.
Across the state, 17 businesses as of Monday have been shuttered for violations.
FIVE RESTAURANTS IN FORT WORTH AREA CLOSE AFTER WORKERS TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19
Five restaurants are taking time out for cleaning this week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on young people and restaurant workers.
Zoli’s Pizza in Fort Worth, the Lunch Box in Fort Worth, Feedstore BBQ in Southlake, the Back Forty Smokehouse in North Richland Hills and Big Daddy’s Ship Store in Grapevine all announced closings after workers came down with COVID-19.
The restaurants are five of the few to publicly announce their COVID-19 cases even though it’s not required here by federal, state, county or city health officials.
The announcements were posted on Facebook.
COVID-19 CASES OVER TIME
Coronavirus daily case counts over time by local counties in the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex. Tap the arrow button to replay the animation. Data provided by Texas Health and Human Services and local counties.
Flourish StudioSTEVE WILSON SWILSON@STAR-TELEGRAM.COM
BIG LEAGUE DREAMS MANSFIELD TO REOPEN AFTER CLOSING DUE TO POSITIVE COVID-19 TEST
The Big League Dreams sports facility in Mansfield was expected to reopen Tuesday after closing because an employee received a positive test result for COVID-19.
The park canceled games scheduled for Sunday after officials confirmed that an employee had tested positive. The park began the sanitation process Monday, said Kevin Flora, senior vice president of park operations for Big League Dreams.
A family member of the infected employee reached out to park officials about the possibility the employee had contracted COVID-19 and test results for that employee were later confirmed, Flora said.
Park officials also launched a contact tracing effort among staff to make sure no other employees had been infected and no other positive tests results have been reported, Flora said.
“All of the potential employees, anyone who worked on his shift was offered to get a free test or they could self quarantine,” Flora said. “All the tests so far have come back negative. There are 12 employees who worked on the shift with this employee over the past eight days.”
The employee was a food service worker who was constantly moving around, Flora said. He was never around any other employee nor was he in any contact with any customer for an extended period of time, Flora said.
WITHOUT MASK MANDATE, NORTH TEXAS COVID ‘MINI SURGE’ LIKELY TO CONTINUE, SCIENTIST SAYS
Mask-covered faces and social distancing were rare this weekend in the Fort Worth-area — two major factors causing the recent surge of novel coronavirus cases in North Texas.
The region is experiencing a “mini surge” of the deadly virus, according to research from HSC Fort Worth, which also noted that wearing a mask dramatically reduces the spread of coronavirus. Though Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says cities and counties can mandate that businesses require patrons to wear them, Fort Worth and Tarrant County officials have been reluctant to enforce masks.
Tarrant County passed 9,000 coronavirus cases Monday.
Many things may have caused the recent increase, but venturing into crowds more and not wearing a mask appear to be the two biggest factors, said Rajesh Nandy, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Nandy called it “a deadly combination.”
He looked at cellphone tracking data along with the number of new cases in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin counties and saw an increase in cases as people began to travel around the Metroplex when stay-at-home orders were lifted. He also looked at the rate of transmission in 147 counties across the country and found the virus is “significantly” less likely to be spread where officials have demanded people wear masks.
COVID-19 SPREAD ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ IN TEXAS, BUT RESTRICTIONS NOT YET NEEDED, ABBOTT SAYS
Amid recent record hospitalizations and new cases of the novel coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott urged Texans to stringently follow social distancing guidelines, but said Monday that reintroducing stay-at-home restrictions is not yet needed.
“To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas, and it must be corralled,” Abbott said during a press conference from the Texas Capitol.
Two of the key metrics Abbott said he is assessing — hospitalization levels and the infection rate — have been on the rise since late May. And if they increase “too much” Abbott said there are strategies the state can turn to without reinstating stay-at-home policies.
“Closing down Texas again will always be the last option,” Abbott said.
Abbott pointed to measures already being taken, including targeted testing of hot spots, local officials restricting access to popular recreation areas and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s recent crackdowns on bars that violated reopening guidelines.
Referring to charts that showed the rise in new cases, hospitalizations and the infection rate, Abbott said “there’s been pretty much a doubling of the numbers in those three categories.”
Open STEVE WILSON SWILSON@STAR-TELEGRAM.COM
ABBOTT ALLOWS MORE OVERSIGHT ON GATHERINGS, ENACTS CHILD CARE RULES
Citing a rise in cases of the novel coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott granted local officials greater authority Tuesday to impose restrictions on large outdoor gatherings. He also directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to enact COVID-19 health and safety standards at child care centers after the agency had repealed its earlier requirements.
Abbott issued a proclamation Tuesday that amends his previous executive order to allow mayors and county judges to impose additional restrictions on outdoor gatherings estimated to have more than 100 people. Previously, local officials were only permitted to impose restrictions for gatherings of more than 500 people.
At the start of the month, Abbott had permitted large outdoor gatherings in anticipation of the upcoming Fourth of July holiday and celebrations. However, public health experts have pointed to large gatherings, like those that occurred over Memorial Day weekend, as a possible catalyst for a rise in new cases.
On June 12, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission had repealed its emergency rules first implemented in April that required child care centers to take the temperature of children, parents and staff, alter pick-up and drop-off operations and more.
Abbott said both decisions were based off of data showing an increase in COVID-19 transmission tied to large gatherings and child care centers.
“These are just some of the steps Texas will take to contain the rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday.
RURAL NORTH TEXAS COUNTIES ARE DECLARING THEMSELVES 100% OPEN FOR BUSINESS DESPITE COVID LIMITS
A handful of rural counties in North Texas have declared themselves fully open for business, despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that caps capacity for most businesses as the novel coronavirus continues to spread.
Businesses in the counties of Hood, Eastland and Stephens have been approved by the state to increase their max capacity from 50% to 75% — a facet of Abbott’s phased reopening of businesses that allows rural counties with 10 or fewer active COVID-19 cases to increase their capacity sooner than others.
But those counties have also taken it a step further. Earlier this month, Eastland County and Hood County declared themselves “sanctuary counties” for all businesses and Stephens County passed a similar resolution that said it was “100% Open for Business.”
And Hood County officials argue that Abbott’s most recent executive order allows their businesses to return to normal operating limits. They point to a section of the order that states that in counties that have received Texas Department of State Health Services’ approval, businesses that were subject to the 50% capacity limit “may operate at up to 75 percent of the total listed occupancy or normal operating limit of the establishment starting 12:01 a.m. on June 12, 2020.”
The key part is that there’s no 75% before the “or normal operating limit,” local officials said.
“It doesn’t say anything about 75%. That’s normal. So if you’re already at 75% per the DSHS attestation — which we were — then starting (in) June, we were allowed to tell our businesses to go to normal operating,” said Jay Webster, Hood County’s emergency management coordinator. “They shouldn’t put that language in there if they don’t want you to open up at full capacity.”
AS DALLAS COVID-19 CASES RISE, 2 OF THE CITY’S TESTING SITES WILL LOSE FEDERAL FUNDS
As COVID-19 cases in Dallas continue to rise, two coronavirus testing sites in the city are set to lose their federal funding on June 30, Dallas officials said Tuesday.
This comes after Dallas County reported more than 400 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day and seven more deaths Tuesday. Dallas County has confirmed a total of 17,744 COVID-19 cases, including 324 deaths.
The sites are located at American Airlines Center and Ellis Davis Field House, WFAA-TV reported. The city and county will instead fund the Ellis Davis Field House site, and a new drive-thru testing site will be created at the University of Fort Worth Business News in Irving, while the testing site at the American Airlines Center will close at the end of the month.
Rocky Vaz, director of emergency management for Dallas, told Allison Harris of Fox 4 News that the city asked the federal government for an extension past June 30, but that it unlikely it will happen.
At a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday President Donald Trump told his supporters that he told his administration to slow testing down.
Trump later tweeted on Tuesday that cases are going up in the U.S. because it is testing more than any other country and that with fewer tests there would be fewer cases reported.
TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK TO AID THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES AT DICKIES ARENA
The Tarrant Area Food Bank is set to help thousands of families.
The food bank has four truckloads of food, about 40,000 pounds, ready to be distributed to about 4,000 families from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday at Dickies Arena on 1911 Montgomery Street.
To receive food, people will have to drive to the arena and turn on Trail Drive into the yellow lots. Because of the pandemic, families and individuals will only be asked for their annual income to receive 25 pounds of food.
Members of the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard have been assigned to assist Tarrant Area Food Bank as staff until mid-July and will help out with food distribution efforts on Wednesday.
Julie Butner, president and chief executive of Tarrant Area Food Bank, says that food distribution rates have gone up by 60% since the pandemic began ravaging the economy, causing people to lose their jobs.
DFW AREA CORONAVIRUS CASES
Tap the map to see cases in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Pan the map to see cases elsewhere in the US. The data for the map is maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University and automated by the Esri Living Atlas team. Data sources are WHO, US CDC, China NHC, ECDC, and DXY. The data also includes local reports.
Source
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/coronavirus/article243755797.html
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