El Paso sees 2 new virus deaths, over 500 added cases as vaccination rate nears 10%

EL PASO, Texas -- Two new deaths and 537 additional coronavirus cases were reported Sunday morning in El Paso County by health officials.

That raised the pandemic totals to 1,643 deaths and 110,125 cases.

It comes as El Paso is set to hit a milestone moment on the vaccine front. Slated to receive 12,900 more vaccine doses this week, it should become the first of Texas' urban counties to reach a 10% initial dose vaccination rate, according to Texas Department of State Health Services data.

Sunday's reported virus fatalities involved a man in his 70s and another man in his 100s, both of whom officials said had underlying health conditions.

The number of active infections continued to rise Sunday after once again topping the 35,000 mark on Saturday. The active case count is now 35,270.

"El Paso appears to have settled, for now, into a pattern of about 470 new Covid-19 infections a day. For the past three weeks, the number of new weekly cases has been in a narrow range of 3,300-3,500," writes Bob Moore of El Paso Matters in his weekly trends analysis. "The number of El Pasoans dying of Covid-19 last week was at the lowest level since October."

On Sunday morning, there were 427 El Pasoans hospitalized due to Covid-19, with 146 of those patients listed in intensive and 94 remaining on ventilators. Hospitalizations were at their highest level since Christmas, but have declined over this weekend.

Health officials estimated 72,647 El Pasoans have now recovered from the virus, although doctors indicate that some recovered persons will still face ongoing health issues as a result of having been infected.

Complete El Paso health department virus data can be found online at EPStrong.org.